NOTES ON CROTALUS MITCHELLII AND " CROTA- 

 LUS PYRRHUS." 



BY JOHN VAN DENBURGH. 



Among many interesting reptiles in the collection of 

 the California Academy of Sciences are ten specimens of 

 Crotahis niifc/icllii, which throw much light upon the var- 

 iation and distribution of this little-known species. 



CrotaJus mitchellii was first described by Professor 

 Cope (Proc. Acad. Phil., 1861, p. 293) from a single 

 specimen collected by Mr. John Xantus at Cape St. Lucas, 

 Lower California. Mr. L. Beldinfj secured another in- 

 dividual at La Paz in 1882. These seem to be the only 

 specimens of this species which have reached herpetolo- 

 gists, from this region. 



Five years later (1. c. 1866, pp. 308 and 310) Professor 

 Cope described a rattlesnake, obtained by Dr. Elliott 

 Coues near Fort Whipple, Arizona, under the name of 

 Caiidisona ^yrrha. 



C. py?'rh?is was stated to differ from C. initcJicUli. — 



ist, by being "salmon red (pale vermillion)" instead 

 of ' ' greyish yellow ' ' ; 



2d, by having four loreals instead of one ; 



3d, two very small instead of two elongated preoculars ; 



4th, rattle subacuminate instead of parallelogramatic ; 



5th, fourteen instead of sixteen labials; 



6th, two rows of smooth lateral scales on each side in- 

 stead of one. 



Dr. Stejneger, in a very interesting paper in the 

 "West American Scientist" for April, 1891, states of 

 C . -pyrrhiis: " None of the specimens obtained since 

 (the type) show a similar coloring. * * * In all (five) 

 of them the ground color is a slightly buffy white, more 

 or less sprinkled with black dots, giving it a kind of 



2d Ser., Vol. IV. September 25, 1894. 



