COLUBERERYTHROGRAMMUS. 117 



soil. Spite of this essential service, the universal prejudice against the Serpent 

 tribe causes its destruction from all hands. 



General Remarks. The Coluber erythrogrammus was first noticed by Palisot 

 de Beauvois, who found it in the southern States, and communicated a specimen 

 to Daudin. The latter has given a figure of a portion of this animal, and a detailed 

 description; with which our specimen agrees in the main, but not altogether. 

 Daudin gives "162 plates and 49 pairs of scales, and the tail one-sixth of total 

 length," — neither have I been able to find the "three rows of carinated scales on 

 the back," or the peculiar conformation of the abdominal plates. 



