COUES AND YARROW ON HERPETOLOGY. 275 



selves, being quite blackish and set off upon the general dull grayish- 

 brown ground-color. The under parts are dull slaty-gray, variously 

 speckled and blotched with slaty-black, which in some cases prevails 

 over the gray, especially on the hinder part of the body. The dorsal 

 and lateral bands are alike pale dull yellowish. The dorsal stripe at its 

 broadest points is one scale and two half scales wide ; where encroached 

 upon by the black spots, it is reduced to a single scale, or even inter- 

 rupted altogether. These spots are generally opposite, giving a beaded 

 character to the dorsal stripe ; sometimes alternate, when the band 

 appears zigzag; and both these conditions may be found at different 

 points on the same specimen. The lateral stripe is less firm than the 

 dorsal, since it is not only beaded along its upper edge by the lower one 

 of the two series of lateral spots, but also blended t^o a degree with the 

 color of the first row of scales along which it lies, as usual in those spe- 

 cies in which this stripe is on the second and third rows. The first row 

 of dorsal scales is colored like the belly, not like the back. The lateral 

 dark spots, very numerous, and, as already said, quite conspicuous, are 

 mostly alternate with each other, in some places opposite. The plates 

 of the head are light brown, excepting the labials, which are colored 

 like the body. 



Twenty-one rows of scales is normal in this species, and the lateral 

 stripe occupies the second and third. The head is large and especially 

 wide, and the muzzle blunt. The superior labials are eight in two and 

 a half of the three specimens under examination, the other half of the 

 third specimen having seven. The discrepancy occurs, as usual, among 

 the smaller anterior ones, the eye being in all situate over the fourth 

 and fifth, counting from behind. The third from behind is the largest 

 of the series. The length of the tail is contained 4§ times in the total 

 length ; 3| times in the length of the body alone. 



U. vagrans exhibits in a marked degree the variation in number of 

 labials, also of the anterior and postorbital plates. The species is 

 i:)eculiarly characteristic of the Central region, but it is found exceed- 

 ingly numerous in Utah, Colorado, and Arizona, generally in mountains. 



The Wandering Garter Snake does not appear to be generally distrib- 

 uted along the northern boundary line. It was not met with during the 

 first year of my connection with the Survey in any part of the Ked 

 Eiver watershed, nor was it seen the second season except to the west- 

 ward from the outliers of the Eocky Mountains to the main chain itself. 

 We may conclude that its northwestern limits of distribution are indi- 

 cated in these points. The species was originally described from the 

 Pacific slope, Puget's Sound, California, and jSTew Mexico, and has since 

 been shown to be of very general dispersion in the West, on both sides 

 of the mountains. 



