Here, H. 1980 6 December (continued) divaceos and T. koepeleorum of an ocellti — although I'd guess both Tropidurus were more easily approached than S. ocellti . The near absence of snakes was striking , and my impression from talking with people was that they are infrequently seen and that perhaps Oxyrhopus fitzingeri and Micruroides schmidti were the only ones that are "commonly" encountered. John Bowling knew of Zeplolyphlops or Amphisbaena or both, tho I wasn't sure he could distinguish them. He and Julius Boos had heard of a viper found in the quebradas , but neither had seen one. Two things emphasize the scarcity of snakes: (1) We drove the road from Talara to Negritos for three nights to and from, w/out seeing any, nor did I see a dead or live snake in over 1800 km driven in NW Peru. (2) at no time did we see snake tracks in the sand , though those of lizards (mainly Dierodon I suppose) were very common.