86 SNAKES OF THE PHILIPPINE ISLANDS 



The only record of the occurrence of Matrix stolata in the Phil- 

 ippine Islands is that of Peters.* If Peters's specimen is extant 

 it would be well to have it examined to determine the species 

 as well as the presence or absence of apical pits. I strongly 

 suspect that Peters's specimen was either Natri.v spilogaster or 

 N. stolata from an extra-Philippine locality. 



MATRIX SPILOGASTER (Boie) 

 Plate 4, fig. 1 



Tropido7wtus spilogaster BoiE, Isis (1827) 535; (1828) 559; Du- 



MERiL and BiBRON, Erp. Gen. 7 (1854) 598; Gunther, Cat. Col. 



Snakes Brit. Mus. (1858) 66; Peters, Mon. BerL Ak. (1861) 687; 



Jan, Elenco Sist. Ofid. Milan (1863) 72; Arch. ZooL Anat. Phys. 



3 (1865) 225; Icon. Gen. (1868) 27, pi. 2, fig. 1; Fischer, Arch. 



f. Nat. 48 (1882) 282; Jahrb. wiss. Anst. Hamburg (1885) 80; 



MtJLLER, III. Nacht. Cat. Herp. Samml. Basel Mus. (1883) 15; 



BoETTGER, Ber. Senck; Nat. Ges. (1886) 109; Boulenger, Cat. 



Snakes Brit. Mus. 1 (1893) 257. 

 Tropiddnotus quincunciatus var. Schlegel, Phys. Serp. (1837) 309; 



Eydoux and Gervais, Voy. Favorite, Zool. (1839) 69, pi. 28. 

 Natrix spilogaster Griffin, Philip. Journ. Sci. § A 4 (1909) 596; 



§ D 5 (1910) 211; § D 6 (1911) 257; Taylor, Philip. Journ. Sci. 



§ D 12 (1917) 356. 



Description of species. — (P^rom No. 407, E. H. Taylor collec- 

 tion; collected at Manila, May 29, 1915, by E. H. Taylor.) 

 (Adult female.) Rostral nearly twice as wide as high, narrow- 

 ly visible f rom> above ; internasals as long as broad, broadly 

 truncate anteriorly, as long as prefrontals ; latter much broader 

 than long, forming their longest suture with frontal; frontal 

 a little longer than its distance from end of snout, four-fifths as 

 wide as long; parietals longer than frontal, their greatest width 

 nearly equaling length of frontal ; 2 nasals, second highest ; loreal 

 moderately large, as high as deep, in contact with 2 preoculars, 

 of which the superior is largest ; supraocular a little longer than 

 frontal and at least half as wide; 3 postoculars, subequal in 

 size ; temporals 2 + 2 + 3 ; 9 upper labials, fourth, fifth, and sixth 

 entering eye ; labials have the following order of size ; seventh, 

 eighth, sixth, ninth, fifth, fourth, third, second, first ; 10 lower 

 labials, 5 in contact with anterior chin shields; mental broadly 

 triangular ; 2 pairs of chin shields subequal in size ; head rather 

 thick; diameter of eye equal to its distance from nostril; scales 

 in 19 rows, all strongly keeled except outer row, which is faintly 

 or not at all keeled; ventrals, 150; anal double; subcaudals. 88. 



* Loc. cit. 



