41 



TROPIDOxXOTUS SIRT AUS.—Linnceus. 



Plate XI. 



Characters. Head sub-oval, broad, a yelloAv spot on each occipital plate; 

 body thick, dusky above, marked Avith three longitudinal yellow lines; abdomen 

 greenish-yellow, plates with a black blotch near their lateral extremities. PI. 145. 

 Sc. 70. 



Synonymes. Coluber sirtalis, Linnxus, Syst. Nat, torn. i. p. 383. 



Coluber bipunctatus, Latreille, Hist. Nat. Rept., torn. iv. p. 85, pi. 30, fig. 2. 

 Coluber sirtalis, Gnielin, Syst. Nat. Lin., torn. i. pars iii. p. 1107. 

 Coluber sirtalis, Latreille, Hist. Nat. Rept., torn. iv. p. 69. 

 Coluber sirtalis, Daudin, Hist. Nat. des Rept., torn. vii. p. 146. 

 Coluber sirtalis, Shaw, Gen. Zool., vol. iii. part ii. p. 535. 

 Natrix sirtalis, Merrevi, Vcrsuch eines Syst. der Amph., p. 132. 

 Coluber sirtalis, Harlan, Med. and Phys. Res., p. 116. 

 Striped Snake, Vulgo. 



Description. The head is moderately large, flattened, sub-oval, elongated, 

 with the snout rounded. The vertical plate is pentagonal, broad in front, and 

 rounded where it joins the frontal, and with an angle posteriorly to touch the 

 occijntal; the superior orbital arc single, oblong and projecting, narrowest in 

 front. The occipital are large and pentagonal, broad in front, and joined to the 

 superior orbital, as well as to the two upper posterior orbital plates. The frontal 

 are large, broad, and pentagonal; the anterior frontal are also broad, but quadri- 

 lateral, with their posterior and inferior angle prolonged. The rostral plate is 

 heptagonal, concave on its inferior margin, for the mouth; there are two nasal 

 Vol. IV.— 6 



