71 



COLUBER MELANOLEUCUS.— Dflwrfm. 



Plate XII. 



Characters. Head elongated, oval; rostral plate large, shaped like an isosceles 

 triangle, prolonged and rounded anteriorly; body, above white, more or less clear, 

 and marked with subround black or dusky blotches, and covered with strongly 

 carinated scales. PI. 216 — Sc. 60. 



SrNONTMES. Pine Snake or Bull Snake, Bart., Travels in Florida, &c., p. 276. 

 Coluber melanoleucus, Daud., Hist. Nat. des Rept, torn. vi. p. 409. 

 Coluber melanoleucus, Harl., Med. and Phys. Res., p. 128. 

 Pine Snake or Bull Snake, Vulgo. 



Description. The head is rather oval and small for the size of the animal, 

 with the snout elongated and projecting; the vertical plate is very large, pen- 

 tagonal, broad before, where it is joined to four frontals, narrow and pointed 

 behind, where it passes slightly in between the occipitals; the superior orbitals 

 are broad, of the same length as the vertical, and of irregular pentagonal form, 

 larger behind and smaller before, with two facets, one for the external frontal, 

 and the other for the anterior orbital; the occipitals are polygonal, and most 

 extensive in the transverse direction, and behind them are placed several small 

 plates; there are four frontals, nearly of the same breadth, but the two internal 

 are longest; the anterior frontals are trapezoid, and two in number; the rostral 

 plate is an isosceles triangle, with its base in front greatly prolonged and rounded, 

 and its apex directed upwards and backwards, separating the nasals, and deeply 

 received between the anterior frontals; there are two nasal plates, the anterior 

 irregularly pentagonal, lunated behind; the posterior oblong and concave in front 



