95 



COLUBER ORDINATUS.— LmwffiMi. 

 Plate^VIir 



Characters. Head moderate, flattened; body robust, greenish-olive above, 

 with five longitudinal series of small subquadrate black spots, the series alter- 

 nating with each other; abdomen pale-green, tinged with yellow, a dark spot 

 near the lateral extremity of each plate. PI. 143 — Sc. 66. 



SrNONYMES. Little Green Garter Snake, Catesby, Carolina, &c., vol. ii. p. 53, pi. liii. 

 Coluber ordinatus, Linn., Syst. Nat., torn. i. p. 379. 

 Coluber ordinatus, Gmel., ed. Syst. Nat. Linn., torn. i. part iii. p. 1097. 

 L'Ibibe, Lacip., Hist. Nat. des Serf)., torn. ii. p. 322. 

 Coluber ordinatus, Latr., Hist. Nat. Rep., torn. iv. p. 71. 

 Coluber ordinatus, Daud., Hist. Nat. des Rept, torn. viii. p. ISl. 

 Coluber ordinatus, Fitz., Neue Class der Rept., p. 53. 

 Coluber ordinatus, Harl., Med. and Phys-, p. 113. 

 Grass Snake, Vulgo. 



Description. The head is flattened, oval, with the snout rather truncated; 

 the vertical plate is pentagonal, broadest before; the superior orbitals are oblong, 

 quadrilateral, broadest posteriorly; the occipitals are large, irregularly pentagonal, 

 and broadest anteriorly; there are two regular pentagonal frontal plates, broadest 

 internally, and two anterior frontals, irregularly triangular, with their bases 

 rounded and directed outwards; the rostral is short and irregularly pentagonal, 

 most extensive and concave below; there are two nasal plates, the anterior larger, 

 quadrilateral, and truncated posteriorly; the posterior is smaller and crescentic 

 in form; the nostrils and near the snout lateral, and open a little backwards; 

 there is a single anterior orbital plate, pentagonal, and most extensive vertically. 



