REVISION OF THE KING SNAKES. 247 



bordered with black, and separated by narrower grayish mottled 

 spaces. The red blotches are about 2 to 3^ scales long, and they 

 maintain this length through a width of about 8 scales across the 

 back, then narrowing, they extend down on the sides to about the 

 second or third row of scales. These downward extensions are some- 

 times nearly or quite isolated from the dorsal blotches. The black 

 borders are i- to 1 scale in width doreally, becoming narrower on 

 the sides. The spaces between the blotches are whitish, and strongly 

 but minutely mottled with dark, except close to the black borders. 

 The belly is heavily blotched with black; the tendency is for narrow 

 transverse bands to cross the belly and end on the first row of scales 

 in alternation with the dorsal blotches, but these are often broken 

 in the middle and obscured by large black patches between them 

 and opposite to the dorsal blotches. On the head of the small 

 specimen are two red V-shaped marks black-bordered, opening 

 forward, the larger chiefly on the parietals, the smaller chiefly on 

 the frontal. Behind the eye is a large black blotch. Rest of head, 

 chin, and throat whitish, minutely mottled with darker. 



The dentition is as follows: Maxillar^^ teeth, 13, the last two 

 enlarged, not grooved nor separated from the rest by an interspace; 

 mandibular teeth, 14 in one specimen (number 4652) and 16 and 17 

 in the other, the third, fourth, and fifth large, the last small; pala- 

 tines, 13 in each instance; ptery^goids, 22 (only one set counted). 



Remarks. — If, as is entirely probable, the two specimens described 

 above are the originals, then they are the only specimens of the form 

 known. That they belong to the genus Lampropeltis as at present 

 defined, must be conceded. They can not, however, be closely related 

 to any other form in the genus; the head pattern is unique, and, 

 although the body pattern bears a superficial resemblance to trian- 

 gulum and to the members of the caUigaster group, it yet bears a 

 distinct stamp of originality; the 10 lower labials, long tail, swollen 

 temples, and high number of palatine teeth are all features that 

 mark it as specialized. It is doubtless more closely allied to the 

 tnangulum group than to either of the other two. 



LAMPROPELTIS ALTERNA (Brown). 



Fig. 78. 



1902. Ophibolus altemus Brown, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Philadelphia for 1901 

 (Feb. 6, 1902), p. 612, pi. 34 (type locality, Davis Mountains, Jeff Davis 

 County, Texas; type specimen, number 14977, Acad. Nat. Sci., Phila- 

 delphia, E. Meyenberg, collector); same, 1903, p. 550.— Ditmars, 

 Reptile Book, 1907, p. 356.— Strecker, Baylor Bull., vol. 18, no. 4, 

 1915, p. 39. — Lampropeltis altema Stejneger and Barbour, Check 

 List, 1917, p, 87. 



This name rests upon a single specimen, received alive at the 

 Zoological Gardens in Philadelphia, and said to have been found in 



