206 CALIFORNIA ACADEMY OP SCIENCES. 



three postoculars. Temporals normally one followed by 

 two, sometimes 1-3. Seven, or rarely six or eight, su- 

 perior and eight to ten inferior labials, fifth or sixth 

 superior and fourth, fifth, or sixth inferior largest, third 

 and fourth or fourth and fifth superior reaching eye, 

 first pair of inferior meeting on median line. Two 

 pair of gerieials, posterior longer than anterior. Scales 

 on body in seventeen or nineteen rows, all keeled except 

 sometimes the first row of each side. Anal plate not 

 divided. Gastrosteges varying in number from one 

 hundred and thirty-nine to one hundred and fifty-two. 

 Urosteges in two series of from fifty-two to seventy. 

 Eye small. 



The ground color above is olive or pale blackish 

 brown, dotted and spotted with black along the edges of 

 the scales, and with or without three light longitudinal 

 lines. The lateral lines, when present, are usually 

 grayish or greenish blue, while the dorsal line which 

 often fades out posteriorly may be white, gray, blue, 

 yellow, or brick red. A blackish streak usually runs 

 back from the eye in specimens light enough to show it. 

 The labials are bluish gray or yellowish. The pineal 

 spot is often present on the suture between the parietal 

 plates. The belly may be yellowish, olive, plumbeous, 

 or slate; the throat is yellowish white; the lower surface 

 of the tail is sometimes brick red. Many specimens 

 can be distinguished from T. p. pickeringii only by the 

 smallness of the eye, which, however, is a very good 

 character. 



Length to anus 372 395 420 518 560 585 



Length of tail 105 112 115 133 164 138 



Distribution. This beautiful little snake is very com- 

 mon in British Columbia and Washington in the vicin- 

 ity of Puget Sound, especially on Vancouver Island and 



