ON THE SNAKES OF THE GENUS CHARINA. 



BY 



Leonhard Stejneger, 



Curator of the Department of Reptiles and Batrachians. 



Within the faunal area of Korth America, as it is usually understood, 

 only two genera of boid snakes are known to occur, viz, Charina and 

 Lichanura, which have been referred by Professor Cope to two distinct 

 i'arailies, the former to the Gharinidce, the latter to the Boidce proper. 

 The osteological characters which separate these families are as follows- 



Charinida': Corouoid bone and postdrbitals absent. 



Boidw: Coronoid bone and postorbitals present. 



Externally the two genera representing these families in our fauna 

 may be distinguished as follows : 



a' . Frontal plate present, large Charina. 



a'2. Frontal plate absent Lichanura. 



The genus Charina was instituted by J. E. Gray, in 1849, for a Cali- 

 fornia specimen in the British Museum, which he regarded as Tortrix 

 lotto] of Blainville. Three years later Baird and Girard, in describing 

 the reptiles brought home by the famous " United States Exploring Ex- 

 pedition " from our western coast, established the genus Wenona fov two 

 specimens which tbey regarded as types of two different species, viz, W. 

 plumhea and W. isahella. These were afterwards described in greater 

 detail and figured by Girard in the herpetological part of the exploring 

 expedition (pi. vii). Finally, Jan, in 18G2, after examining the type 

 and only known specimen of Blainville's T. hottce, expressed the opin- 

 ion that the specimen so called and described by Gray represented an- 

 other species and genus, for which reason he named the genus repre- 

 sented by Blainville's species Pseudoeryx. In spite of this statement by 

 so high an authority', subsequent writers, who consider T. hottw and TT 

 plumhea generically distinct, have continued to call the former Charina 

 bottw. Noteworthy among these is Bocourt, who very forcibly points 

 out the characters of the alleged two genera, though it is plain that 

 Gray's Charina bottw, if tested by Bocourt's own characters, is referable 

 to W.jphmibea rather than to the true T. bottw. 



As to the value of the species described, opinions have varied greatly- 

 Cooper and Suckley (in the P. R. 11. Eep., xii, iii, p. 303 (1860), ex- 

 pressed doubt as to the distinctness of W.iJliimbea and Isabella, the lat- 

 ter stating expressly that " specimens appear to unite the characters 

 of both species." The following year Cope (Proc. Phila. Acad., 1861, 

 p. 305) also expressed as his opinion that both species are probably 

 identical, and since then their identity seems to have been accepted 



Proceedings National Museum, Vol. XIII— No. 808. 



Proc. KRI.90 12 177 



