322 FLORIDA REPTILES AND BATRACHIANS—LCENNBERG. vol. xvii. 



nasal plate, a point brought out fuller by Garman,* who describes it 

 as " entire, sometimes grooved or half divided, occasionally divided." 

 The former authors also indicate a certain variability in the size of the 

 supraocular. Finally, Jan has described a specimen as a separate 

 subspecies which had the loreal extending to the orbit beneath the 

 preocular.t My specimen, which is from a hammock near Lake Charm, 

 Orange County, the only one obtained by me, has the nasal completely 

 divided. In addition it has 7 upper labials, third and fourth entering 

 the eye, the center of the eye above the fourth, and 9 lower labials, 

 instead of normally 6 supralabials and 8 infralabials. It will be 

 noticed, however, that Jan % figures a specimen from New Orleans 

 with 7 supralabials like mine, and Dr. Stejneger informs me that the 

 U. S. National Museum ])ossesses several specimens with the same num- 

 ber, for instance. No. 10741, from Clear Water, Fla., and No. 0298, from 

 Fort Jesup, La. He also mentions 3 other interestnig specimens, viz: 

 No. 5221, from northern Alabama, which on one side has a rather large 

 subpreocular wedged in between the second and third supra labials; No. 

 2387, from Anderson County, S. C, in which the rostral extends so far 

 backward as to entirely separate the internasals; and No. 14828, from 

 Georgiana, Fla., with the loreal and supraocular so small as to allow 

 the prefrontals to separate them and enter the eye between them. 



The size of the supraocular is not particularly small in my speci- 

 men; the number of temporals ^re 1+2+2; the number of gastro- 

 steges about 180. The number of the latter is given by Garman § as 

 varying between 157 and 174. In my specimen there are 17 pairs of 

 black rings on the body and on the tail, nearly the normal num- 

 ber. The specimen described by Jan and referred to above has an 

 unusually large number of black rings, but Dr. Stejneger informs me 

 that the TJ. S. National Museum specimen No. 6298 mentioned above 

 has quite as many, but with the loreal normally related. 



My specimen was obtained by digging in the ground. The burrowing 

 habits of this species are evidently the cause of its comparative rarity. 



FARANCIA ABACURA (H o 1 b r o o k ). 



I obtained several small specimens in Lake Eola, at Lake Brantleg, 

 and at other places in Orange County. Two larger ones were dug up 

 in a " bay-head " at Oviedo, in the same county, in spite of the fact 

 that the people there did not know it and had no name for it. 



The U. S. National Museum has received a specimen from Arlington, 

 Fla., No. 9583, collected in 1878 by Francis C. Goode. 



ABASf OR ERYTHROGRAMMUS (D a u d i u ). 

 I have not found this species in south Florida, but have seen a speci- 

 men caught not far from St. Augustine. 



* Garman, S., Mem. Mus, Comp. Zool. Cambr., ii, p. 78 (1883). 

 t Iconographie des Ophidiens, livr. 11, pi. v, fig. 3. 

 tLoc. cit., fig. 1. 

 §Loc. cit. 



