45 



TROPIDONOTUS ORDINATUS.— LmM^Ms. 

 Plate XII. 



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

 with five longitudinal series of small sub-quadrate 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. PL 143. Sc. GG. 



Synonymes. Little Green Garter-snake, Catesby, Carolina, &c., vol. ii. p. 53, pi. liii. 

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

 Coluber ordinatus, Gmelin, Syst. Nat. Linn., torn. i. pars iii. p. 1097. 

 L'Ibibe, Lacephle, Hist, des Serp., torn. ii. p. 322. 

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

 Coluber ibibe, Daudin, Hist. Nat. des Rept., torn. vii. p. ISl. 

 Coluber ordinatus, Merrem, Versuch eines Syst. der Amphib., p. 93. 

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

 Coluber ordinatus, Harlan, Med. and Phys. Res., 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 orbital are oblong, 

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

 and broadest anteriorly. There are two regular pentagonal frontal plates, 

 broadest internally, and two anterior frontal, irregularly triangular, with their 

 bases rounded and directed outwards; the rostral is short and irregularly penta- 

 gonal, 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; there is a single anterior orbital plate, pentagonal, and 



