1915.] NATURAL SCIENCES OF PHILADELPHIA. 185 



toad {Bufo I. lentiginosus) proved the prey. Two others had eaten 

 the narrow-mouthed frog {Engystoma carolinense) and the pine- 

 wood's tree frog (Hyla femoralis). In two specimens many small 

 beetles were found in the stomachs with the frogs and one had 

 nothing but beetles. All except one of the specimens with food had 

 Anura, and beetles seemed the second important food of this species. 

 Parasites. — Three of these snakes were afflicted with internal 

 parasites. The natives call this species "highland moccasin," 

 because of its habitat and because of its supposed poisonous nature. 

 Certainly, it is strange that in their crude way this observing and 

 simple people should have associated it with Tropidonotus, as they 

 surely do in calling it "highland moccasin," in contradistinction 

 to "water moccasin." 



18. Ancistrodon piscivorous Lacepede: "Moccasin"; "Green-tailed Moccasin"; Water 

 Moccasin; Cotton-moutii Moccasin; Cotton-mouth; Stump-tailed Moccasin. Fig. 14. 



The water moccasin is common in the swamp. In the three 

 collections from the swamp we have sixteen specimens, seven taken 

 between May 29- July 15, 1912, seven from Julj^ 15-November 1, 

 1912, and two taken in the fall of 1913. 



Coloration.- — -The smallest specimen taken, measuring 38.3 cm., 

 shows a decided similarity to A. contortrix in coloration, only the body 

 color is more brownish than the light brown or drab of the copper- 

 head. There are thirty-two vertical bars in twos, these individual 

 bars being one or two scales wide. In the cephalic half of the body 

 two bars of one side alternate with two of the other side. Two bars 

 form a diamond inclosing an area of the lighter body color. In this 

 lighter area there is usually a small spot of color like the bars. In 

 the caudal half of the body the two bars of one side may be opposite 

 two of the other side and unite across the back, making a cross-band. 

 On the tail are seven cross-bands. The caudal half of the tail, both 

 dorsum and venter, is greenish-yellow in this small specimen. This 

 stage of the moccasin the natives consider another species, "the 

 green-tailed moccasin." Opposite the intervals between two sets 

 of bars and opposite the space inclosed by two bars there is on the 

 end of the gastrostege a black spot 1| the width of the gastrostege. 

 In the front half of the body the black spots of one side of the venter 

 alternate with those of the other side. In the caudal region where 

 the sets of bars are opposite each other as are the intervals, these 

 gastrostegal spots also are opposite, merge and are not so conspicuous. 

 As the snakes get older the dark ventral blotches become less dis- 

 tinct and the yellow or yellowish-white ground color of the venter 



