242 [October, 



dicating the progressive augmentation or length of the teeth as they recede 

 backward, the following being the essential characters as given by the learned 

 authors, Erpet. Gen. Tom. vii. p. ITS. 



Les Coryphodontikns. 



Char. " Serpents with smooth unequal teeth ; the anterior much shorter 

 than those which follow, and increasing successively in length from in front 

 posteriorly." They constitute the seventh family of the great sub-order of Agly- 

 phodont Ophidians. The characters of the genus are the same as those of the 

 family. The scales of this genus are more or less elong&i^^, smooth or carinated. 

 It is the only one of the family, and comprise six species, inhabiting North and 

 S. America, the E. Indies and the Indian Archipelago, (Sumatra, Phillipines). 

 Several serpents have been described under the generic name Bascanion by Prof. 

 Baird and Girard, having all smooth scales, but as the characters are drawn 

 from the external forms alone and not the teeth, and inasmuch as many of 

 these are of secondary importance, and not always constant, this genus, it 

 appears to us, cannot be retained. e. g. The head in Coryphodon pan- 

 therinus, a South American species, is not narrow but broad, the supple- 

 mentary plate beneath the ant-orbitar is absent, andthere are but 15 rows of 

 scales, &c. In a specimen of Coryphodon constrictor before me, the eye rests 

 on the fourth and fifth superior labial, which is prolonged upward, and the 

 supplementary plate below the large anterior orbitar is between the third and 

 fourth upper labials ; the same occurs in another specimen belonging to 

 the Bonaparte collection. This arrangement, however, is probably exceptional. 

 In the young specimen found at Beesley's Point, and which does not differ 

 materially in its coloring from that discovered in Kansas, there are but 5 

 superior labials, the third and fifth greatly prolonged, the eye resting solely on 

 the third, and there are three posterior labials. The external characters of Mas- 

 ticophis apply almost equally well to Psammophis, an' African and Asiatic 

 genus, yet how different the form and arrangement of the teeth in Masticophis 

 flavigularis (Herpetodryas) and in the latter genus. 



Among the specimens is one which appears to be a young Coryphodon con- 

 strictor ; the general coloration resembles very much that of Ablabes triangu- 

 lum, but it is at once distinguished by the shape of the head and the form of 

 the frontal plate. The following are its characters, which may be interesting, 

 showing the great chasge which age sometimes develops in the coloration of 

 serpents: Head long, flattened above, depressed in front; frontal long and 

 narrow, narrower behind, excavated laterally ; eye large, seven superior labials, 

 the eye resting on the third and fourth ; nostril between two plates ; a more or 

 less quadrangular loral ; one large ant-orbitar, very narrow below, broad above, 

 appearing upon the top of the head, between the prefrontal and supraorbitar ; 

 a small supplementary plate beneath it ; two post-oculars ; two rows of plates 

 upon each temple between the occipital and superior labials; scales perfectly 

 smooth, 17 rows near the middle of the body ; inferior lateral rows the largest. 

 Total length 1 foot 1\ lines ; length of head 6 lines ; greatest breadth 3 ; length 

 of tail 3 inches. 



Coloration. Head above brown, occipital and frontal plates marked with yellow ; 

 chin, throat and superior labials yellow, the posterior edges of the latter black ; 

 a red and ash brown circular spot immediately behind the occipital plates ; 

 54 well marked transverse reddish brown blotches upon the back, not reach- 

 ing to the tail, becoming indistinct in a space of 2]- inches ; the lateral extremi- 

 ties of the transverse blotches are separated from the abdominal scutes by four 

 and a half rows of scales ; sides covered all over with brown spots ; a black spot 

 near the exterior extremity of each abdominal scute, at its posteii^or margin, and 

 one or more smaller near the middle, upon the anterior part of the abdomen ; 

 rest of abdominal surface and of under part of tail yellow, in the latter region 

 almost white. Ab. scut. 171 ; one bifid prreanal ; 80 subcaud. 



Gen. Remarks. The colors of this animal are so different that it might be 

 readily mistaken for a distinct species. The Col. vernalis of Dekay has been 



