COLUBER SAUKOMATES. 215 



bands above mentioned are distinct only in mature age, 

 being very obscure in the young, -which have a number of 

 reticulations on the back. 



Entire length, about 3 feet. 



This Serpent inhabits the environs of the Caspian Sea, 

 in dry and sandy places ; near the Cuma, Ural, or Jait, and 

 the Volga. 



Coluber Sauromates. 



Elaphis Sauromates, Dum. et Bib. vol. vii. p. 288. 

 Coluber Sauromates, Pallas, Zoog. Boss. As. vol. iii. p. 42 ; Schinz, 

 Europ. Faun. vol. ii. p. 51. 



Description. — This species is very closely allied to the fore- 

 going, the chief difference apparently consisting in the 

 colouring. The anal plate, as in that species, is double, 

 and there are two pre-oeular plates ; the snout is somewhat 

 prolonged, blunt, and rounded at its extremity, with a slight 

 hollow before the eyes ; the body is thin, not fleshy, pro- 

 longed, fusiform; the back is convex, and the sides are 

 somewhat angular, because of the extension upon them of 

 the ventral plates ; scales on the centre of the back keeled, 

 those towards the head and tail being smooth ; the scales of 

 the body form twenty-three or twenty-five longitudinal 

 rows ; ventral plates, 204 to 220 ; subcaudal plates num- 

 bering sixty-three or sixty-four divided. Nothing is known 

 of the number or arrangement of the teeth. Each dorsal 

 scale is brownish in the middle, with a circumference of 

 dull yellow, causing an appearance of brown streaks ; across 

 the back are brown spots irregularly disposed and mixed 

 with yellow spots ; the scales on the flanks are lighter, each 

 with a brownish centre, forming longitudinal lines along 

 the sides; the belly is uniform light yellow, sometimes 

 with angular and round spots distributed along the line of 

 junction of the belly and sides ; sometimes these are absent, 



