1895.] NATURAL, SCIENCES OF PHILADELPHIA. 391 



Genus BASC ANION Baird, Girard. 



19. Bascanion constrictor (L.). Black Snake. 

 Fairly abundant in sparsely settled districts. 

 Specimens — Sam burg, 1 ad. ; Bellevue, 1 ad. 



Genus COLUBER Linnaeus. 



20. Coluber obsoletus Say. Pilot Snake. 



I found this the most abundant snake throughout the State. The 

 large specimen from Fentress County has only twenty- three rows of 

 dorsal scales, all the others have twenty-five, bringing the average 

 far below the normal number for this species, which is never les-s 

 than twenty- five, and often reaches twenty-nine rows. In the twent) - 

 five-rowed specimen the prevailing color is black, with slight 

 marbling of gray above. The supralabials and anterior lower 

 scutes are white, becoming heavily blotched with alternating 

 quadrate spots of black on the belly. The lower caudal region is 

 quite black. The dorsal color pattern is rhomboidal, and there is a 

 tendency to striation in the gray lateral markings of the fore part of 

 the body. The specimen was nearly five feet long. It is plainly 

 referable to the form described by Holbrook as Coluber alleghani- 

 ensis. A young specimen from the same locality has the same color 

 pattern, but is much lighter. 



Three specimens from Samburg exhibit very instructive char- 

 acters. The smallest, a half grown specimen, has a gray -black 

 ground with a black dorsal row of separated rhomboid blotches 

 and a similar row of blotches on each side which are alternate 

 to the dorsal ones, but do not touch them. The belly is white, 

 with alternating tesserae of black spots on either side in short long- 

 itudinal rows from three to five scutes in length, and one-eighth to 

 one-sixteenth of an inch in width. Another large specimen is 

 similar, but darker, the dorsal blotches less defined, and the lateral 

 ones merged into a dark longitudinal band with a superior narrower 

 band of gray traversing almost the entire length. The under side 

 is white mottled with dusky anteriorly, but with a continuous 

 median light stripe to tip of tail. It is intermediate between alle- 

 gheniensis and quadrivittatus. A large Chattanooga specimen is 

 intermediate between the Allardt and Samburg examples. No speci- 

 mens of the very dark form of typical obsoletus were seen, though I 

 examined several other Samburg specimens which were not pre- 



