202 CALIFORNIA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 



back and one along the second and third rows of scales 

 of each side, but the lateral lines not infrequently blend 

 with the color of the belly. The dorsal line usually is 

 bluish but may be yellow. The belly is bluish or yel- 

 lowish, or rarely slaty, and may have a black line or 

 series of spots near the tips of the gastrosteges. The 

 head may be brown, olive, or coppery red above, bluish 

 or grayish laterally, yellowish white below. The tail is 

 colored like the back, but less definitely. In some 

 specimens the ground color above is solid black, with- 

 out a trace of red. In others there are traces of red on 

 the sides, chiefly on the skin between the scales. In 

 several the red is more extensive and forms small irreg- 

 ular blotches on the sides. In a number these blotches 

 are larger and extend up from the 

 lateral line in definite and more or 

 less rectangular figures, between 

 which are similarly shaped prolonga- 

 tions down ward of the black ground.* 



Many show the red blotches spread out and blended 

 above, so that the downward prolongations of the ground 

 color have become detached and form a series of black 

 spots separated, by red, 

 from the narrow band of 

 ground color remaining on 

 each side of the light dor- 

 sal line. In others these 

 black spots have become united and form a black line, 

 so that on each side of the light dorsal line we have a 

 line of black, one of red, another of black, and the 

 light lateral line.f In one specimen the black is almost 



* This and the following are the most common forms, 

 t The Eutasnia. tirtalis tetratania of Cope. 



