REVISION OF THE KING SNAKES. 95 



the middorsal stripe are wholly dark brown or black, and this con- 

 dition may obtain as low as the second or first row of scales, but 

 the scales of the lower rows nearly always have white centers which 

 are smaller dorsally and larger ventralty. These white centers 

 may extend as high as the seventh row of scales, or no higher than 

 the first. Usually the scales of the first row or two are all white. 

 The belly is usually white or yellow with a development of black, 

 laterally, on the posterior edges of the ventral plates. This black 

 is increasingly pronounced posteriorly. The underside of the tail 

 is almost constantly a uniform black or dark brown; when white 

 occurs there, it is usually as a tapering midventral stripe extending 

 back from the vent for a short distance. 



The head markings are like hoylii, except that numerous white 

 spots are developed on the parietal, supraocular, and frontal plates, 

 and on the anterior temporals, a condition which is not, however, 

 uncommon in specimens of hoylii from southern California, and 

 which is developed likewise in conjuncta of the "Cape Region" of 

 Lower California. The upper and lower labials are white or yellow 

 with their common borders dark, except that, below the eye, on the 

 third upper labial, or bridging the suture between it and the fourth, 

 is the dark blotch characteristic of the western representatives of 

 the getulus group. 



Specimens from San Diego County usually have this typical and 

 striking pattern (fig. 22) : The conspicuous and often perfect dorsal 

 stripe, the regular white spotting of the lower rows of scales, the 

 nearly immaculate belly, and the uniformly black caudals. North 

 of here the most constant feature of the pattern is the uniform dark 

 color underneath the tail; the rest is extremely variable. This 

 variation and its significance is discussed farther on. 



The penial characters are practically identical with those of 

 hoylii. The following characters are derived from examination of 

 alcoholic material: Apparently sHghtly bifurcate, the sulcus single, 

 and extending over one of the lobes; calyces, with low fringes, 

 restricted to the extreme distal end; the fringes soon becoming 

 modified into spines which increase gradually in size toward the 

 base; no spines unusually enlarged; about halfway toward the base 

 of the organ the spines suddenly replaced by a few very small ones, 

 which soon disappear entirely, leaving the basal portion smooth 

 (or, in preserved specimens, wrinkled). 



The dentition is as follows: Maxillary teeth, 13 to 15, subequal, 

 the posterior not enlarged; mandibular teeth, 14 to 15, subequal; 

 palatines, 9 to 10 (abnormally 11); pterygoids, 16 to 18. 



Habitat aiul habits. — Practically nothing is recorded on the natural 

 history of this form. One specimen from Santa Ysabel, San Diego 

 County, California, is recorded as having been taken "along a small 



