ON A NEW GENUS AND SPECIES OF COLUBRINE SNAKES FROM 

 NORTH AMERICA. 



BY 

 Leonhard Stejneger, 



Curator of the Department of Reptiles and Bairachians. 



The necessity of recognizing the two species treated of in this paper 

 as forming a separate genus, and the discovery of one of them in 

 southern Arizona, add another genus to the list of those peculiar to the 

 Sonoran and the Lower Californian provinces. This genus is also a 

 curious addition to those snakes peculiar to these zoological subdivisions, 

 in which the rostral shows a most extraordinary development. In the 

 present instance this shield resembles a thick leaf loosely attached to 

 the front of the snout and turned over on top of the muzzle. The 

 generic appellation here proposed has reference to this peculiarity, be- 

 ing derived from (pb)lo\>^ leaf, and poyx'-^^i snout. 



Phyllorhynchus, gen. uov. 



Diagnosis. — Head slightly distinct, short; tail short, less than one 

 seventh of total length; palatine teeth present; dentition diacraute- 

 rian ; rostral plate greatly enlarged, with free lateral borders, and pro- 

 duced backwards so as to separate the supranasals entirely ; anal un- 

 divided; no scale-pits; pupil vertical ; nostril large; two nasals; loreal 

 present; supralabials not in contact with orbit; one pair of geneials 

 only ; 19 scale rows. 



Habitat. — Arizona and Lower California. 



Ty^e. — Phyllorhynchus hrowni Stejneger. 



To this genus also belongs Cope's Phimothyra (or Salvadora) deeur- 

 tata, which agrees with the above type in all essential characters. In 

 all these, except the general shape of the rostral, it differs from Salva- 

 dora proper, the type of which is S. grahamiw. In fact, while Salvadora 

 seems to be correctly placed among the Natricinw, Phyllorhynchus ap- 

 pears to be one of the Corotiellimv, as these subfamilies are defined by 

 Professor Cope (Bull. U. S. Nat. Mus., No. 32, p. 51). 



Proceedings National Museum, Vol. XIII— No. 802. 



151 



