100 COLUBER SIPEDON. 



in front of this is a small quadrilateral loral plate; there are two subround 

 posterior orbitals, behind which are two oblong large temporals; the inferior wall 

 of the orbit is completed by the fourth and fifth labials, of which plates there are 

 eight on each side, all more or less regularly quadrilateral. The eyes are rather 

 large; the pupil black, with the iris grey. The neck is contracted, and covered 

 with small, subhexagonal, strongly carinated scales. 



The body is long but robust, and covered with scales similar to those of the 

 neck, but much larger, and slightly notched posteriorly, and with broad plates 

 below. The tail is large, and rather subtriangular in form, broader below and 

 narrower above. 



Colour. The head is dusky above; the jaws are olive, tinged with yellow, 

 and varied with dusky at the junction of the labial plates; the lower jaw is of 

 lighter colour. The body above is dark brown, and on each flank is a series of 

 large subquadrate and reddish-brown spots, extending to the abdominal plates; 

 from the superior margin of these blotches runs a light coloured transverse band 

 to connect with the spots of the opposite side; these bands are margined with 

 black both before and behind; in the young snake the bands are very beautiful, 

 but in the adult they become more or less indistinct, but can always be seen in the 

 middle, except in some varieties, where they are wanting altogether. The throat 

 is dirty-white; the ground colour of the belly is dirty -white, often with a reddish- 

 brown tinge, the different plates being marked with small waving lines, clouded 

 with dusky, and most so near the tail, where the markings both above and below 

 are finally lost. 



Dimensions. Length of head, Ij inches; length of body, 28 inches; length of 

 tail, 8 inches; total length, 37i inches. They are not unfrequently seen of 

 greater dimensions. In the specimen here described there were 145 abdominal 

 plates, and G7 subcaudal scales. 



Habits. The Coluber sipedon is not unlike the Coluber fasciatus of the south 



