770 13. COLUBRID 
labials. The lower surfaces are chiefly black, boldly mar- 
bled with yellowish white laterally on most of the gastro- 
steges and centrally on a few. The distal urosteges and the 
genials and gulars are yellowish white with black or dark 
brown margins. 
The colors in life were purple, black and bright canary 
yellow. 
Jeength: to “ants  e 920 
Length of tala ee 0 
Distribution—Santa Catalina Island, Gulf of Califor- 
nia, Mexico. 
Remarks.—This beautiful snake is known only from a 
single adult male which was dug out from the center of a 
decayed fallen cactus. Its coloring is quite different from that 
of any other known species, although the lower surfaces are 
somewhat suggestive of Z. nitida and the spotted sides 
remind one of L. g. splendida. 
Genus 35. Contia 
Contia Bairp & Girarp, Cat. N. Amer. Rept., Pt. I, Serpents, 1853, 
p. 110 (type, 2étis). 
Lodia Barrp & Girarp, Cat. N. Amer. Rept., Pt. I, Serpents, 1853, 
p. 116 (type, tenuis). 
Eirenis Jan, Elenco Sist. d. Ofidi, 1863, p. 48. 
The body is rather stout for so small a snake, with short, 
tapering, pointed tail, and slight constriction at neck. The 
head is flat-topped, with broad, rounded snout. Its plates 
are normal except that the anterior and posterior nasals 
usually are united above, or both above and below, the 
nostril. Usually one preocular and two postoculars are 
present. Temporals are 1+2. There is one loreal. The 
