362 The Philippine Journal of Science isis 



tween the two, their longest suture with the prefrontal; the 

 latter nearly twice as wide as deep, the suture between them 

 somewhat longer than that between the internasals; frontal 

 much wider in front than behind, longer than its distance from 

 the end of the snout, little longer than wide, twice the width 

 of the supraocular; parietals scarcely longer than wide, equal 

 to or a little longer than the frontal; nasal partially divided, 

 the anterior part largest ; loreal longer than wide ; one preocular, 

 two postoculars; the supraocular twice as long as wide; tem- 

 porals 1+2; seven upper labials, the third and fourth entering 

 the eye; seven or eight lower labials, the first four in contact 

 with the first pair of chin shields; mental small, wider than 

 deep, not in contact with the anterior chin shields, which are 

 one and one-half times the length of the posterior; scales in 

 17 smooth rows with no apical pits; eye large, equal to its dis- 

 tance from the nostril; ventrals, 163; anal single; subcaudals, 

 42. Eye less than its distance from the nostril. 



Color in life. — Brownish lavender above with a series of 

 eighteen large dark purplish spots edged with black, each extend- 

 ing across the back to the first or second row of scales; below 

 immaculate cream yellow; subcaudals with dull brown spots; a 

 large anchor-shaped, black-edged spot on the nape of the neck 

 and on head, the front of which forms a band that crosses the 

 head and eyes diagonally and includes the fifth and sixth labials ; 

 the main branch of the anchor, which runs back medially, in- 

 creases in width toward the neck where it bifurcates, sending 

 a branch to each side of the neck; a diagonal temporal 

 streak present. Traces of a yellowish vertebral streak visible. 

 Length, 551 millimeters; tail, 92. 



Variation. — There seems to be much variation in this species 

 as shown in Table I. The only definite localities given are on 

 Luzon, and it is highly probable that specimens without locality 

 marks are also from that island. The ventrals vary between 

 149 and 165; the subcaudals, 34 and 43. The temporals vary 

 equally between 1-1-2 and 2+2. One specimen (No. 1554, 

 Bureau of Science collection) has only a single labial entering 

 the eye, which is the third ; however there is an obvious fusion 

 of the third and fourth labials. In No. 700, Bureau of Science 

 collection, the anchor-shaped marking is disconnected on the 

 frontal, thus following the marking in H. burksi. In all the 

 specimens save the one described there are indications of narrow 

 bands between the larger dark bands; they are usually repre- 

 sented by a few irregular dots across the body or merely by 



