CANTORIA VIOLACEA. 157 



sayi, of the United States, the upper region being generally of a 

 uniform shining reddish-violet, and sometimes exhibiting transverse, 

 narrow, obsolete, light bands or bars. 



DESCR. The head is of moderate development, almost continuous 

 with the neck. It is depressed, nearly plane above, and slightly de- 

 clivous forwards. The snout is obtuse and rounded; the upper jaw 

 protrudes beyond the lower. The eyes are very small, and situated 

 towards the upper surface of the head, and directed laterally outwards. 

 The nostril is small also, perforating one single plate. The mouth 

 forms an oblique curve, regularly ascending towards its angle. 



The occipital plates are the largest of the cephalic series ; they are 

 elongated, anteriorly angular, irregularly rounded exteriorly. The ver- 

 tex plate is hexagonal, as broad as it is long, engaging posteriorly between 

 the occipitals. There is a pair of subcircular or polygonal postfrontals 

 of moderate size, and an odd, sublanceolated prefrontal, having on its 

 sides a nasal, reaching anteriorly the rostral, and contiguous posteriorly 

 to the postfrontals. The nasals are situated on the upper surface of 

 the snout, bearing the perforation of the nostrils towards their poste- 

 rior third. They are elliptically or quadrangularly elongated, and of 

 considerable development. The rostral shows but very little in an 

 upper view of the head ; it is six-sided, having nearly a square base, 

 and a triangular summit. The loral is well developed, subtrapezoid in 

 shape, and showing in an upper view of the head. There is an ante- 

 orbital, nearly as large as the supraocular, and deeper than broad. 

 A small subangular postorbital. Two infraorbitals, the posterior small 

 and subangular, the anterior nearly as large as the anteorbital, exist 

 under the eye, thus preventing the labials from entering into the orbit. 

 The orbit, therefore, is formed of four plates, an upper and a lower, 

 an anterior and a posterior. There is a large and elongated temporal 

 shield, behind which are several scales, a little larger than the true 

 scales of the neck. The upper labials are five or six in number, the 

 first, fifth, and sixth being broader than the rest; all but the sixth are 

 deeper than broad. The first is subtriangular, situated beneath the 

 nasal. The symphyseal is small, subtriangularly obtuse, and inclosed 

 by the first pair of inferior labials, which are narrow and elongated. 

 There are eight lower labials, much smaller than the upper ; the fifth 

 is the largest, hence, they diminish anteriorly and posteriorly. There 



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