15 rows of dorsal scales. Fusion of the three rows
takes place at the level of the 8th, 41st, 47th, 54th, and 65th
ventrals. Furthermore, there is a small secondary postocular on each
side of the head. In other characters the specimen is like _G. petersi_;
the resemblances to that species are greater than to _G. nasalis_, which
has been recorded from Guatemala and southern Chiapas.

~Geophis tarascae~ Hartweg

_Geophis tarascae_ Hartweg, Occ. Pap. Mus. Zool. Univ.
Michigan, 601:1, May 4, 1959.--Uruapan, Michoacan, Mexico.

Uruapan (3).

A female of this species was collected in the Parque Nacional at the
north edge of Uruapan in 1899, and a male was taken there in 1947; these
specimens were used by Hartweg in his description of the species. Floyd
L. Downs obtained another specimen in the Parque Nacional on July 19,
1960. It has 164 ventrals and 46 caudals; in life, the ground color of
the neck was brown with a purplish tint; the dorsal markings were black;
the chin was a cream-color, and the belly was white. This specimen is
distinguished from those of all other species of _Geophis_ in Michoacan
in that it has dark irregular cross-bars on the dorsum and a row of dark
spots on the venter.

~Hypsiglena torquata ochrorhyncha~ Cope

_Hypsiglena ochrorhyncha_ Cope, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci.
Philadelphia, 12:246, November 15, 1860.--Cape San Lucas,
Baja California, Mexico.

_Hypsiglena torquata ochrorhyncha_, Bogert and Oliver, Bull.
Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist., 83:378, March 30, 1945.

Tupataro.

The systematic status of the geographic variants of _Hypsiglena_ in
Mexico and southwestern United States has been commented on by several
authors. Tanner (1944) considered _H. torquata_ and _H. ochrorhyncha_ to
be distinct species; Bogert and Oliver (1945:379) and Duellman
(1957b:238) presented evidence indicating that _H. torquata_ and _H.
ochrorhyncha_ intergrade in Sinaloa and southern Sonora. In _Hypsiglena_
the scutellation, including the numbers of labials, dorsals, ventrals,
and caudals, seem to vary in a clinal manner. Nevertheless, these snakes
can be divided into two distinct populations on the basis of the nuchal
color pattern, consisting of an _ochrorhyncha_-type (a broad dark
nape-band, the lateral edges of which extend anteriorly and fuse with a
postorbital stripe, and a narrow nape stripe extending from the
posteromedian edges of the parietals to the dark nape band) a