FAMILY COLUBERIDvE. 35 



FAMILY COLVBERIBM. 



Serpents with no venomous fangs. No anal appendices. 



* GENUS COLUBER. Linneus. 



Head with large polygonal plates. Body ivith rhomboidal, carinated or smooth scales. 

 Abdomen with single broad transverse plates ; beneath the tail, double. Jaws with simple 

 teeth, uniform in size. Hybernate. Carnivorous. 



A very numerous genus, even with all the dismemberments which have followed a more 

 critical examination of their characters. In this State we enumerate five species. 



THE BLACK SNAKE. 



Coluber constrictor, 

 plate x. fig. 20. — (state collection.) 



Coluber constrictor. LlN. Gmel. 



Le Lien. Bonn. Ophiologie, p. 15. 



Le Couleuvre lien. Daud. Hist, des Reptiles, Vol. 6. p. 402. 



Coluber constrictor. Harlan, Med. and Phys. Researches, p. 112. 



The Common Black Snake. Storer, Mass. Report, p. 225. 



C. constrictor. Holbrook, N. Am. Herpetology, Vol. 3, p. 69, pi. 15. Kirtland, Zool. Ohio. 



Characteristics. Black ; slate-colored beneath ; chin and throat white. Scales smooth. 

 Abdominal plates 175 - 185 ; caudal, 85 - 90. Length 3-6 feet. 



Description. Head rather smaller than the body, which begins to taper from the vent. 

 Rostral plates convex, prominent ; the first subquadrate, smaller than the second, which are 

 irregularly five-sided, the central plate largest. Upper labial plates sixteen. Gular plates 

 five pair, the three anterior elongated. Eyes moderately vertical. Nostrils large, vertical, 

 placed between the first and second pair. Body covered with smooth rhomboidal scales ; 

 beneath, with broad entire plates ; beyond the vent, the caudal plates are in pairs, occasionally 

 interrupted by an entire plate. Length of the tail, compared to the total length, is as one to 

 four nearly. 



Color. A uniform shining bluish black above ; margin of the jaws, chin and throat white. 



Belly usually slate-colored, or bluish white. Young, spotted and speckled with black and 



white above. 



Abdominal plates, 180. 



Caudal plates, 88. 



Length, 36"0-85-0. 



