Part 5

_Description._--General form similar to _P. oregonensis_, but body not quite so much flattened, tail less compressed, and limbs shorter and stouter; tail cylindro-conic, somewhat compressed in posterior half, nearly equal to length of head and body; head depressed, about width of widest part of body; snout broadly truncate from above, rounded in profile; eyes moderate, smaller than in _P. oregonensis_, rather prominent, separated anteriorly by nearly twice the length of the orbital slit; nostrils small, near corners of snout, separated by about their distance from pupil; subnasal groove descending nearly to margin of lip; line of lip descending slightly below corner of snout and ascending below posterior edge of orbit; palatine _teeth_ in 2 slightly curved series beginning some distance behind and a little internal to the internal nares, converging obliquely backward, and scarcely separated on the median line; parasphenoid teeth in 1 patch throughout, separated from palatine teeth by an interval equal to distance from nostril to edge of lip; internal nares rather small; tongue large, ovate, not emarginate, attached along median line but free laterally and for a short distance behind; neck a little narrower than body, with large elongate parotoid gland divided by a longitudinal groove running posteriorly and downward from eye to gular fold, other grooves behind, above and in front of parotoid; a groove along vertebral line; _costal grooves_ between limbs 12 on right, 13 on left, not continued to midline either above or below; limbs a little shorter and stouter than in _P. oregonensis_, anterior with 4 and posterior with 5 digits; digits rather short, with broad rounded ends each with a terminal pad below, inner shortest, third longest, second finger longer than fourth, second toe shorter than fourth which is but little shorter than third; web well developed, extending nearly to end of inner digits, 2 phalanges of third and fourth toes free, feet very broadly palmate; tail slender, slightly compressed in posterior two-thirds, with rather indefinite grooves on proximal half; skin shiny, but roughened above and laterally and pitted below by the mouths of small glands; adpressed limbs separated by about the distance between 2 costal grooves.

A broad band extends along the whole dorsal surface from the snout to the tip of the tail. In the alcoholic specimen this band is dark clay-color, dotted with black on the upper surface of the head. It is broadest on the back of the head and narrowest above the anus. The upper surfaces of the limbs and the side of the snout are clay-color dotted with black. A black line runs from the eye to the nostril. The hands and feet are black dotted with clay-color. The chin and central gular region are white with a few scattered black dots. The sides of the neck and the sides and lower surfaces of the body and tail are intense black with a few scattered whitish dots on the belly and sides of tail and with a zone of crowded white dots along the sides of the neck and body.

Snout to anus 60 Front of anus to end of tail 56 Width of head 9 Nostril to orbit 2 Snout to orbit 4 Snout to gular fold 13 Snout to fore limb 17 Gular fold to anus 47 Axilla to groin 34 Adpressed limbs separated by 3 Fore limb 15½ Hind limb 18½ Heel to end of longest toe 7 Breadth of foot 6

SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA, December 21, 1905.

PROCEEDINGS

OF THE

CALIFORNIA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES

THIRD SERIES

ZOOLOGY VOL. IV, NO. 5

_Issued March 14, 1906_

ON THE OCCURRENCE OF THE SPOTTED NIGHT SNAKE, HYPSIGLENA OCHRORHYNCHUS, IN CENTRAL CALIFORNIA; AND ON THE SHAPE OF THE PUPIL IN THE REPTILIAN GENUS ARIZONA

BY JOHN VAN DENBURGH

_Curator of the Department of Herpetology_

ON THE OCCURRENCE OF THE SPOTTED NIGHT SNAKE, HYPSIGLENA OCHRORHYNCHUS, IN CENTRAL CALIFORNIA

The little snake to which Cope, in 1860,[33] gave the name _Hypsiglena ochrorhynchus_ was first described from specimens secured at Cape San Lucas, Lower California. It has since been found to range across Arizona and northern Mexico to Texas. As recently as 1893, so little was known of the distribution of this snake in California that Dr. Stejneger,[34] in recording the single specimen secured by the Death Valley Expedition in the Argus Range, Inyo County, California, thought that it added a species to the known fauna of the State. This snake had, however, already been taken at San Diego, California, as mentioned by Professor Cope[35] in 1883. More recently, the species has been recorded by Cope[36] from Witch Creek, San Diego County, and by myself[37] from the Cuyamaca Mountains, San Diego County; Strawberry Valley and San Jacinto, Riverside County, and Hesperia, San Bernardino County.

[Footnote 33: Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila. 1860, p. 246.]

[Footnote 34: N. A. Fauna, no. 7, 1893, p. 204.]

[Footnote 35: Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila. 1883, p. 32.]

[Footnote 36: Report, U. S. Nat. Mus. 1898 (1900), p. 954.]

[Footnote 37: Occas. Papers, Cal. Acad. Sci. 5, 1897, p. 180.]

These localities are all in the Desert and San Diegan faunal areas. It was with much interest, therefore, that I found this snake in the Californian Fauna close to the edge of the Pacific Fauna. The specimen was secured near Los Gatos, Santa Clara County, several hundred miles beyond the range of the species as previously known. It was found under a pile of recently cut hay, at an altitude of about eight or nine hundred feet, in what is locally known as the warm belt of the foothills, where _Bascanion laterale_, _Cnemidophorus tigris undulates_, and _Amphispiza belli_ also occur.

ON THE SHAPE OF THE PUPIL IN THE REPTILIAN GENUS ARIZONA

There has been, among herpetologists, much diversity of opinion as to the merits of Kennicott's genus _Arizona_. The validity of the single species for which he proposed the name _Arizona elegans_ has, I believe, never been questioned, but the known generic characters have been rather inadequate. Accordingly, while some authors have followed Kennicott, others have referred the species variously to the genera _Pituophis_ of Holbrook, _Rhinechis_ of Michahelles, or _Coluber_ of Linnæus.

I believe that all authors (myself included) who mention the point at all describe the eye of this snake as showing a round pupil. This is true of most alcoholic specimens, for in these the pupil usually is dilated. In two living specimens, however, I find that the pupil is slightly irregular in outline so that it appears somewhat eccentric, that it varies considerably in size from time to time, and that it is distinctly elliptic, with the long diameter vertical, but becomes nearly round when dilated. Some alcoholic specimens also show the pupil somewhat contracted and elliptic.

This point is of some importance, since the possession of a vertically elongate pupil is in itself ample basis for the recognition of the genus _Arizona_ as distinct from the other colubrine genera with which it has been confused.

SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA, February 24, 1906.

Transcriber's Notes:

1. Pages 20, 25: The spelling of Reëxamination/reëxamination has been left with the dieresis.

2. Italics are shown as _text_ and bold as =text=.

3. Page 19, 20: The fraction 2/2 has been retained as such.

4. Carat numbers/letters have been retained with the carat symbol to represent an upper position.

5. Page 61: There is a date in the middle of a paragraph which does not seem to pertain to anything. This has been removed.