REPTILIA. 333 



Alsophis angulifer Bibron. 

 Bibron, Hist. Cuba. Rept., p. 222, pi. 27. Boulenger, Cat. snakes Brit, mus., 1894, 2, p. 120, (part). 



A very common Cuban species. No. 2,195, M. C. Z., came from the Paris 

 museum in an old exchange and is marked as a type by A. Aug. Dumeril. 

 Boulenger has considered the specimens from the Bahamas and the Cayman 

 Islands all identical with the Cuban examples. They are separated here. 



This species has been met with on my Cuban trips at every locality visited 

 and specimens have been preserved from Pinar del Rio, Herradura, San Diego 

 de los Bafios, Havana, Manzanillo, and Cienfuegos. It is said to reach a length 

 of over two meters but none was seen larger than four feet. 



Alsophis caymanus Garman. 

 Garman, Proc. Amer. philos. soc, 1887, 24, p. 276. 



This species replaces the Cuban A. angulifer upon the island of Grand 

 Cayman. The type is No. 6,020, M. C. Z. It is of doubtful validity. 



Alsophis fuscicauda Garman. 

 Garman, Bull. Essex inst., 1888, 20, p. 106. 



Similar in its origin to the preceding, but confined to Cayman Brae. Until 

 more material is available, it is impossible to settle definitely the status of 

 these two species from the Cayman Islands. The type is No. 6,235, M. C. Z. 

 This seems also little more than a color phase. 



Alsophis brooksi, sp. nov. 



Types: — No. 7,893, M. C. Z., two specimens (lacking tails). Little Swan 

 Island, Caribbean Sea, March, 1912, George Nelson, collector. 



This form which is simply an island race of the Cuban A . angulifer Bibron, 

 comparable to A. fuscicauda Garman from Cayman Brae and A. caymanus 

 Garman from Grand Cayman differs from all of these in coloration. The entire 

 upper surfaces in the fully adult become completely suffused with dark brown, 

 which becomes a solid color along the middorsal region. All of the scales of both 

 half grown and adult specimens are heavily punctulated with dark brown. In 

 the other races they are free from this characteristic spotting. The ventral 

 scale counts for the two specimens, 182 and 183 show that the average condition 

 for this form is evidently above that of the other races, their highest scale count, 

 rarely observed, is 180. 



