1894. PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM. 323 



CONTIA PYG^EA (Cope). 



I have but rarely found this little snake out of the water, and in 

 such cases only under some log or board near the water's edge. It is 

 common around the borders of the small lakes in Orange County, where 

 I have seen and caught specimens in Lake Eola, Orlando, in and around 

 some small lakes near Clarcona, Toronto, Apopka, and other i)laces. 



The number of supralabials is variable. In most cases there are 8, 

 but I have two specimens with only 7, and one with only G on one side. 

 In these cases of reduction the posterior ones have become fused, as 

 shown by their size and the frequent presence of an incomplete section. 

 The rows of scales are always 17 on all my specimens. The color of the 

 upper surface is sometimes a little lighter on the sides, showing con- 

 spicuously on the three lowermost rows, at least, a narrow light strii:)e 

 along the middle of each series. The belly is salmon-red without any 

 spots, but in some specimens there is on the side of each gastrostege a 

 short stripe extending to about a fourth or a fifth of the belly, forming 

 the beginning of cross-bars. 



STILOSOMA EXTENUATUM, B r <> w ii . 



This rare and recently described snake* was hitherto known from 

 one specimen only, the type. The three specimens obtained by me 



12 3 



Stilosoma extenuatum (twice natural size). 



Fig. 1. Head from above (No. 21327, XJ. S. N. M.). Fig. 2. Head from above. Coll. Zool. Miia. 

 Uuiver.s. Tpsala, Sweden. Fig. 3. Head from the side ; .same specimen as fig. 2. 



in Orange County, viz, one at Lake Charm, near Oviedo, the others 

 at Oakland, deviate in their scutellation of the head to an extraordi- 

 nary degree from the type, which appears greatly abnormal, so much 

 so m fact that the generic determination became one of great uncer- 

 tainty. One of the specimens has been presented to the U. S. National 

 Museum (No. 21327), and submitted to the curator of reptiles. Dr. L. 

 Stejneger, who is responsible for the identification as well as for the 

 following remarks: 



The type specimen of Slilosoma extenitatnm is described as possessing no separate 

 prefrontals (these being fused with the interuasals), no loreal, and no preoculars. 

 The large internasals join the supralabials and enter the eye, and the parietals 

 join the supralabials behind thepostoculais, excluding the temporals from the latter. 



The three additional specimens seem to prove that the only normal and stable 

 characters among the above are the absence of the loreal and the joining of the pari- 

 etals and supralabials. The absence of the preocular is only found in the type, while 

 the fusion of the internasals with the prefrontals is found in the type and in one of 

 the Orange County specimens as well, but not in the other two, in which they are 

 normally separated. 



* Brown, A. E., Proc. Phila. Acad., 1890, p. 199. 



