35. CONTIA—36. RHINOCHEILUS 773 
Distribution—This harmless little snake occurs prin- 
cipally in the transition zone, overlapping into the adjoining 
zones. It has been recorded from Puget Sound, Washing- 
ton, and from Oregon, but no specimens have been collected 
in these states in recent years. Boulenger records one from 
Vancouver Island, B. C. 
In California it occurs in the Sierra Nevada and coast 
ranges. So far as I know, it has not been taken south of 
Tulare and Monterey counties. The counties in which it 
has been collected are Tulare (Kaweah at 1,000 feet), Fresno 
({mountains near] Fresno), Amador (five miles east from 
Carbondale), El Dorado (Fyffe), Butte, Shasta (Baird), 
Humboldt (Carlotta), Mendocino (Eel River Bridge, 
Comptche), Sonoma (Petaluma, Agua Caliente), Napa (St. 
Helena), Marin, Alameda (Berkeley, Piedmont, Alameda, 
Haywards), San Mateo (Menlo Park, Woodside, La Hon- 
da, Pescadero Creek), Santa Clara (Palo Alto, Stanford 
University, Phelps Lake, San Jose), Santa Cruz (Big By 
Wrights), and Monterey (Carmel). 
Genus 36. Rhinocheilus 
Rhinocheilus Barrp & Girarp, N. Amer. Rept., Pt. I, Serp., 1853, p. 120 
(type, /econtet); Corr, Report U. S. Nat. Mus. for 1898, 1900, 
p> 930. 
The body is rather slender, with short, tapering tail. 
The head is slightly distinct from the neck, and ends in a 
narrow snout which projects far beyond the lower jaw. The 
head plates are normal. The nasal plates rarely unite 
above the nostril. One (or two) preoculars and two (or 
three) postoculars are present, as is also a small loreal. 
Temporals are normally two followed by three. The scales 
are smooth, in seventeen to twenty-five rows, with apical 
pits. The anal plate is divided. Urosteges are in one series, 
