REVISION OF THE KING SNAKES. 249 



and less defined, while the red is more pronounced on the posterior part of the body. 

 There are 19 red and black bands on the body, and an equal numlicr of the inter- 

 mediate black ones. On the tail* there are 5 bands, which form quite distinct rings, 

 on the last two of which the red is absent. The head, including the labials, is dark 

 gray with small dark mottlings, not well defined, and a narrow black streak from the 

 postoculars to the angle of the mouth. Ventral surface grayish white, heavily blotched 

 with black, into which the black portion of the cross bands runs. 



By way of correction and addition to the above it may be noted 

 that the temporals are 3+4 + 5 on each side; the left lower labials 

 are 11, the right, 10; the third postocular is on the left side and is a 

 derivative of the fourth supralabial ; the last two maxillary teeth are 

 slightly enlarged, and the palatines are 12 on each side; the dorsal 

 scale formula is 25-23-25-23-21-19-20, and the changes in the 

 number of rows take place in the manner usual for this genus ; the 

 tail is about 0.17 of the total length. 



Remarks. — It will be evident from the above description that this 

 specimen is about as far removed in its structural features from the 

 normal forms of the genus as is pyrrhomelaena. Like the latter it 

 has a long tail, wide head, high numbers of ventrals, caudals, scale 

 rows, temporals, infralabials, and a long, narrow loreal. Its style 

 of coloration is, however, quite different from anything else in the 

 genus, but knowing how easily one pattern may be changed into 

 another radically different in appearance, we can not assign great 

 importance to that fact alone. The writer would agree with Brown 

 (1901, 613) in placing it nearer to pyrrJiomelaena in structural features 

 than to any other form of the genus, but it does not appear to lie at 

 all near to leonis, as that author suggested. It would seem host to 

 await the finding of more specimens before making any definite 

 statement as to its status. 



CONCLUSION. 



The preceding descriptions and discussions have brought out the 

 fact that the genus Lampropeltis is naturally divided into three m.ain 

 groups, of closely related forms (exclusive of two forms of doubtful 

 relationships, mexicana and altema). Two (the GETTJIUS and 

 CALLIGASTER groups) are more closely allied to each other than 

 either to the third, and the latter (the TRIANGULUM group) is 

 composed of at least three minor groups, representing different 

 degrees and kinds of differentiation, and different periods of dispersal . 

 On account of these facts and because the most primitive forms of 

 the groups are apparently very far from being directly related, each 

 group has been treated very nearly independently in searching for 

 its center of dispersal, for it is conceivable that the groups as now 

 known may have started from different centers without affecting the 

 propriety of uniting them all in a single genus. This treatment has 

 resulted in showing that in all probability each of these groups origi- 



