188 THE HERPETOLOGY OF CUBA. 
narrative from a wholly trustworthy observer, Sefor V. J. Rodriguez, Assistant 
in the Museo Poey at the University of Havana: — 
“Once while exploring near Maisi we entered a cave which had just inside the entrance 
a large salon. From this a narrow passageway led to a second hall, the passageway greatly 
narrowed by two huge boulders which had fallen in. On entering the second room we heard 
a noise and upon further examination found that the whole floor of the cave was one seething 
mass of enormous cockroaches and that the noise was the result of the rubbing of one with 
another as they struggled about. Large centipedes were moving back and forth across this 
living floor. Our lights showed a veritable inferno in miniature. Bats flew about in great 
clouds, the stench was overpowering and the chambers still further in were so fearfully hot 
that no entrance was possible. On our way out in the narrow passage between the first 
two halls a large majé was ensconced in a hole at about the level of one’s shoulder and with 
several feet of his body projecting he was making vicious lunges at the passing and repassing 
bats which we had stirred up. We finally got him by the neck and with some labour hauled 
him free and bagged him.” 
Key to the Species of Tropidophis. 
al Sealesikeecledi: Bis =o 43 0 1 ete TILES ee OS 
a? Scales smooth. 
b! Scales in 25 to 29 rows, ventrals about 170-215 . . . .~ e+. 2°. maculatus, p. 190 
b? Scales in less than 25 rows. 
c! Scales in 23 or 25 rows, ventrals 140-160 . . . . . . . «sts. pardalis, p. 189 
ce? Scales in 21 or 23 rows, ventrals usually over 200 . . . . . . semicinctus, p. 191 
56. TROPIDOPHIS MELANURUS (Schlegel). 
Maja; Culebra boba. 
Diagnosis: — The largest member of the genus, a sluggish constrictor, 
like its congeners with vertical pupils in the eyes, usually corn-colour, or light 
grayish and with the scales strongly keeled. : 
Description: — Adult M. C. Z. 10,835. Cuba: Pifar del Rio; Guane, 
February, 1915. Thomas Barbour. 
Head very distinct from neck; rostral much broader than deep, just visible 
from above; frontal longer than broad, a little shorter than its distance from 
rostral; parietals not very conspicuously differentiated; one pre- and three 
postoculars; nine upper labials, fourth and fifth entering the eye; scales in 
twenty-seven (sometimes twenty-nine) rows, distinctly, keeled except the three 
outer rows (sometimes four or five) which are smooth; ventrals 220 (range 
200-225); anal entire; subcaudals forty-two (range 30-45). 
Colour (in life): — Varying shades of corn-yellow, reddish and ashy gray 
