REPTILES OF THE PACIFIC COAST. 



175 



pointed. Temporal regions not swollen. Rostral plate 

 large, prominent, recurved on top of snout, and 

 bounded behind by internasal, anterior nasal, and first 

 labial plates. Plates on top of head, a pair of inter- 

 nasals, a pair of prefrontals, a broad frontal, supraocu- 

 lar of each side, and a pair of rather short, rounded 

 parietals. Anterior and posterior nasals usually dis- 

 tinct, but sometimes 

 united above nostril. 

 Loreal small, elongate, 

 sometimes entering or- 

 bit. One or two pre- 

 and two or three post- 

 oculars. Temporals normally two followed by three, 

 rarely 2-2, 2-3, or 2-4. Eight (rarely nine) superior 

 and nine (or ten) inferior labials, seventh or eighth 

 superior and fifth or sixth inferior largest, fourth and 

 fifth (or fifth and sixth) superior reaching eye, first 

 pair of inferior meeting on median line. One or two 

 pair of geneials, posterior very narrow when present. 

 Scales on body smooth, thin, in twenty-three or twenty- 

 five rows. Anal plate not divided. Gastrosteges vary- 

 ing in number from one hundred and ninety-one to 

 two hundred and six. Urosteges in one series, or more 

 often in one series anteriorly and two posteriorly, of 

 from forty to fifty-five. 



The snout is yellowish more or less marked with 

 black. Back of this the head is black or brown, often 

 spotted with yellow or white. Across the back is a 

 series of large black or brown blotches ; twenty to 

 twenty-eight on the body and six to eight on the tail. 

 These blotches may be rounded, pointed, or truncate 

 on the sides, and are from one and one-half to three 

 times as long as the intervals which separate them. 



