COUES AND YARROW ON HERPETOLOGY. 283 



largft sabpentajjonal, shield-shaped vertical. Single large, triangular 

 superorbital. A pair of moderate occipital and numerous small tem- 

 porals. In advance of the vertical is a small azygos plate, wedged in 

 between the connivent postfrontals. Two pairs of postfrontals. One 

 pair of prefrontals. Two nasals, the nostril between them. A small loral. 

 Two anteorbitals; the lower very small; the large, upper one bounding 

 nearly all of the orbit anteriorly. Three small postorbitals. A large 

 obtuse rostral. Eight superior labials, the eye over the fourth and 

 fifth, the penultimate one largest. 



After a careful examination of many specimens of P. sayi hellona and 

 P. sayi mexicana iu the National Museum, we find no absolute diagnostic 

 value in the entire number of superior and inferior labials and number of 

 dorsal scales, and are rather of the opinion that these two species should 

 be grouped together under Baird and Girard's original name of hellona. 

 Further investigation may show that catenifer Blainv. should be brought 

 under the same head. 



Ophebolus asTULUS BOYLii. {B. & G.) Cope. 



Opliibolus hoylii, Bd. & Gm. Catal. N. Am. Reptiles, 1853, 82.— Bd. P. R. R. Rep. x. 1859, 

 Williamson's and Abbott's Route, Reptiles, 11. — Bd. U. S. Mex. B. Surv. ii. pt. ii. 

 1859, Reptiles, 20.— Cope, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila. 1866, 305. 



Lampropeliis hoylii, Cope, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Piiila. 1860, 255. 



Opliibolus getulus sabsp. boylii, Cope, Check List N. A. Bat. and Rep. 1875, 37. 



Coronella balteata, Hallow. " Pr. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila. vi. 1853, 236".— Hallow. P. R. 

 R. Rep. X. 1859, Williamson's Route, Reptiles, 14. 



A specimen of this species, contained in a collection from the Yellow- 

 stone, offers the following characters: — The color is lustrous browni h- 

 black, crossed at intervals of about an inch by narrow rings of pure 

 white, which gradually widen on the sides to a breadth greater than that 

 of the black interspaces. On the belly, these white rings are sometimes 

 opposite, and then are continuous with the white comiug down from the 

 other side, and sometimes alternate, when they abruptly meet the black, 

 producing a checkered pattern. These points are wholly irregular, both 

 being observable in different parts of the same specimen. In this spe- 

 cimen, which is about 3J feet long, there are in all forty-four rings, in- 

 cluding some which are incomplete, that is, existing only on one sidej 

 for the rings on the back, as on the belly, are not always continued all 

 around, some broken ones finding no fellow on the opposite side. In 

 other specimens, there is also the greatest variety in all these details of 

 pattern. The fore part and sides of the head are irregularly blotched 

 with black and yellowish, and there are yellowish specks on the occiput. 



This species is found abundantly iu Pacific and Sonoran districts, and 

 grows to a large size. The dark bands in Californian specimens in life 

 are of a lustrous blackish-green bronze. Its discovery in Montana is an 

 interesting fact, as there is but one specimen in the National Museum 

 from that region. 



