. Bulletin - United States National Museum. Science. THE HERPETOLOGY OF HISPANIOLA 315 separated by cross bands of the body color one scale in width, and having a central group of buff-colored scales; on the sides a very irregular series of darker spots; tail and posterior part of body dull clove brown with occasional scattered groups of light or dark scales; ventral surface pale olive-buff, the posterior borders white. Remarks.—Steindachner's excellent figure of Epicrates versicolor is almost identical with some Haitian specimens. The length of the frontal, which Steindachner mentions as a po
. Bulletin - United States National Museum. Science. THE HERPETOLOGY OF HISPANIOLA 315 separated by cross bands of the body color one scale in width, and having a central group of buff-colored scales; on the sides a very irregular series of darker spots; tail and posterior part of body dull clove brown with occasional scattered groups of light or dark scales; ventral surface pale olive-buff, the posterior borders white. Remarks.—Steindachner's excellent figure of Epicrates versicolor is almost identical with some Haitian specimens. The length of the frontal, which Steindachner mentions as a possible distinguishing feature, is an exceedingly variable character in the genus. Stein- dachner himself was doubtful of the distinctness of his species and felt that intermediates might possibly be found between Epicrates. Figure 90.—Epicrates striatus striatus: a, Top of head; b, side of head; c, chin. No. 55044, from Samana Peninsula, Dominican Republic. Natural size. versicolor from "Columbia" and Epicrates striatus from the Antilles that would make it necessary to unite the two species. It is probable that his specimen did not come from Colombia at all, but might have been caught in New Providence or Haiti where it must have once been fairly abundant. Variations.—Some of the head shields are rather variable in size and shape. The posterior prefrontals, for example, are large and relatively few in number in some of the specimens, while in others they are broken up into many scales, small and irregular in shape, but arranged rather symmetrically across the snout. The frontal plate assumes a great variety of shapes. Sometimes its outline is. Please note that these images are extracted from scanned page images that may have been digitally enhanced for readability - coloration and appearance of these illustrations may not perfectly resemble the original United States National Museum; Smithsonian Institution; United States. Dept. of the Interior.
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