COLUBER VERNALIS.— i)c^«i/. 



Plate XVII. 



Characters. Head elongated, sub-oval, distinct; snout rounded; body long, 

 c}'lindrical, covered above with smooth, oblong, rhomboidal scales; grass-green 

 above, yellowish-white below. PI. 128. Sc. 89. 



SvxoNYMES. Coluber vernalis, Dekay, MS. 



Coluber vernalis, Harlan, Med. and Phys. Res., p. 134. 



Description. The head is elongated, sub-oval, with the snout somewhat rounded. 

 The vertical plate is hexagonal, large, and broadest in front, with an acute angle 

 behind; the superior orbital is elongated, quadrilateral, narrow before, broader 

 behind, and slightly projecting over the eye. The occipital plates are very large, 

 pentagonal, and broadest before; the frontal are large, pentagonal, broad internal^, 

 narrow externally, where they unite with a single quadrilateral loral plate. The 

 anterior frontal are smaller and quadrilateral; the rostral plate is short, broad, 

 pentagonal, rounded above and in front, and slightly concave below. The nasal 

 plate is single, elongated and quadrilateral; there arc two small, quadrilateral 

 anterior orbital; the posterior orbital are two in number, small and quadrilateral; 

 the inferior wall of the orbit is completed by the third and fourth superior labial, 

 of which plates there are seven on each side, quadrilateral, and increasing in size 

 from the chin towards the angle of the mouth. 



The nostrils are large, lateral near the snout, and open outwards, a little 

 upwards and backwards, in the midst of a single large nasal plate. The eyes are 

 large and bright; the pupil black, the iris golden. The neck is contracted. 



