246 October J 



lateral spots with transverse blotches much broader, and reaching to the abdo- 

 minal rows of scales, but in which the size and position of the eyes do no* 

 appear to form constant characters. The blotches in a recent specimen are o^ 

 a bright red, a very inappropriate color for a clercius, according to our present 

 notions. The specimens marked eximius are all immature, v?ith one excep- 

 tion, but all have the double row of spots. 



Ablabe3jTriangulum, var, clericus] 



Char. A large triangular red blotch upon posterior part of head and neck, 

 with a smaller one of a lighter color in the middle ; a black band from the eye 

 to the angle of the mouth ; 27 rows of quadrate blotches upon the back, of a 

 bright red color bordered with black, the 27th opposite the anus; eight upon the 

 tail ; the blotches upon the back separated from the abdominal scuta by a row 

 and one half of scales, and sometimes reaching as far as the last row ; a single 

 row of much smaller lateral spots of a red color bordered with black, inter- 

 mediate as respects the position of the larger ones, occupying the last or abdo- 

 minal row of scales, and a portion of the abdominal plates ; 21 rows of scales ; 

 abdom. scut. 19G, pra3anal single, subcaud. 44 ; circumference 2 inches 7 lines. 

 Total length 2 feet 7i inches, of tail 3 inches 11 lines. 



It will be observed that these characters differ very little from those given by 

 Count Lacepede. 



Ilahiiat. Clark county, Virginia, Mississippi and neighborhood of Haddonfield, 

 New Jersey. 



For description of var. eximius,* see Dr. Holbrook's work, N. American 

 Herpet., vol. 3, p. 69. 



The geographical range of eximius, according to Prof. Holbrook, is Maine, 

 Rhode Island, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Illinois, and high up the 

 Missouri, (calligaster, Say,) and New York, (Prof. Baird.) 



Gen. TANTILLA, B. and G. 



Among the Ophidians of Dr. Hammond's collection is a very small Calamarian, 

 resembling in its general appearance Carphophis ama;na, Dum. and Bib., but 

 much more slender and of a lighter brown color. The arrangement of the 

 plates upon the head, however, is quite different, and I cannot find a genus into 

 which to place it, among those of the Calamarians characterized by Dum. and 

 Bibron, in the Catalogue of North American Serpents of Baird and Girard, un- 

 less it be Tantilla, or of the snakes in the British Museum, by Mr. Gray. 

 The following are its characters : Head small, slightly rounded above, depressed 

 in front ; snout smooth, rounded, nine plates upon the top of the head, the two 

 anterior frontals much smaller than the posterior, which pass down on each 

 side of the head between the posterior nasal and the anterior orbitar plates, and 

 are in contact with the siijjcrior labials; nostrils between two plates, situated in the 

 anterior of the two for the most part, at its posterior edge ; vertical or frontal plate 

 short and broad, hexagonal, the posterior angle much more acute than the an- 

 terior; occipitals rather long, pentagonal; the supraciliaries do not project over 

 the eye ; but two temporal plates ; no loral, the posterior frontal taking the place 

 of it; one ant-orbitar and one post-orbitar, the latter somewhat larger than the 

 former ; six superior labials, the eye resting on the third and fourth, the fourth, 

 fifth and sixth much larger than the preceding ones ; eye small ; six inferior 

 labial?, the fourth the largest; body slender, somewhat thicker near the middle, 

 with 15 rows of smooth and rhomboidal scales ; five longitudinal rows of smooth 

 rhomboidal scales, four scales in each beneath the neck, between the posterior 

 geneial and front abdominal scutes ; three inferior lateral rows of scales larger 



*Dr. Dekay says of the eximius, "it is rare to find them exceeding 4 feet ; the 

 more usual length is about two." 



