91 



COLUBER ERYTHROG ASTER. 



Plate XIX 



Characters. Head elongated; body long, covered with carinated scales above; 

 whole superior surface of animal brick-dust colour, with a tinge of green at the 

 sides; abdomen and tail uniform copper colour. 



Stnontmes. Coluber erythrogaster, Shaw, Gen. Zool., vol. iii. p. 458. 

 Copperbellied snake, Cutesb., Carolina, &c, vol. ii. p. 46. 

 Copperbelly, Vulgo. 



Description. The head is large, but elongated and rather pointed at the 

 snout, and covered with large plates. The vertical plate is regularly pentagonal, 

 broadest in front; the superior orbital are quadrilateral, elongated, narrow. The 

 occipital are irregularly pentagonal, broadest anteriorly. The frontal plates are 

 quadrilateral and large; the anterior frontal are of similar shape, but small. The 

 rostral is large and semicircular, concave below, convex above. There are two 

 nasal plates, quadrilateral, and nearly of the same size; the anterior is concave 

 posteriorly, and the posterior lunated in front. There is but one anterior orbital 

 plate, and three posterior, smaller, and nearly quadrilateral. The inferior wall of 

 the orbit is completed by the fourth and fifth labial plates, which are eight in 

 number, quadrilateral, and largest posteriorly. The nostrils are lateral, and very 

 near the snout. The eyes are large and bright; the pupil dark, the iris gray, with 

 a tinge of red. The neck is contracted; the body very long, and covered with 

 carinated scales to the abdomen. The tail is long, cylindrical, and terminates in 

 a point; covered with carinated scales above, and bifid plates below. 



