1895.] NATURAL, SCIENCES OF PHILADELPHIA. 3K9 



Two specimens from the Nolachucky and Tennessee Rivers are 

 alike in their rusty olive upper shades and orange- yellow bellies 

 finely spotted with sparse black dots. In one of these the dark 

 dorsal blotches are rhombiform and confluent; in the other they are 

 square, separated by light, transverse bands and alternated along the 

 sides by smaller squares of the same color. In another specimen 

 from the Nolachucky the general appearance is similar to these but 

 the belly is white, nearly spotless anteriorly but darkly blotched and 

 tesselated with black, distally. The dorsal pattern is a curious mix- 

 ture of those exhibited by the two specimens described in the pre- 

 ceding paragraph. Young specimens from Bellevue and Roan 

 Mountain show similar inconsistencies with any popular or scientific 

 classification. 



Specimens: Samburg, 6 ad. ; Bellevue, 2 juv. ; Sawyer's Springs, 

 2 ad.; Harriman, 1 juv.; Knoxville, 1 ad.; near Greeneville, 

 (Nolachucky Riv.), 2 ad. ; Doe River (4,000 ft.), 1 juv. 



16. Natrix cyclopion (Dum. Bibr.). Cyclops Water Snake. 



Four specimens of this huge water snake from Samburg are 

 remarkably uniform in coloration. The upjier ground is dark olive. 

 Beginning at the base of the skull irregular squarish blotches of 

 black alternating with patches of the ground color extend almost to 

 the end of the tail and occupy the middle eight rows of dorsal scutes. 

 On the sides, opposite the olive dorsal squares and touching the 

 corner of the black dorsal squares are squares of the same size and 

 color reaching to and invading the abdominal scutes. The whole 

 effect is a regular checker-board pattern. The lower head and neck 

 are yellow, unspotted. Remainder of lower parts becoming paler 

 yellow distally and increasingly blotched with alternating double 

 and treble rows of rounded spots on the bases of the gastrosteges 

 until at the ventral region they assume a checker-work pattern 

 similar to that of the back. The three largest specimens have 

 twenty- seven dorsal scale rows, the smallest, twenty-five. The largest 

 specimen was nearly five feet long and contained two cat-fish, one of 

 which would weigh a pound and a half and whose pectoral spines 

 protruded through the skin of the snake nearly an inch on either 

 side of the abdomen. 



This species was abundant on the shores of Reelfoot Lake and 

 its large, triangular head, thick body and similar color pattern 



