56 COLUBER CONSTRICTOR. 



Black Snake, Pennant, Arct. Zool. Siippl., p. 92. 



Le Lien, Lctcfplde, Hist. Nat. des Serp., torn. ii. p. 309. 



Coluber constrictor, Gmelin, Syst. Nat. Lin., torn. i. part iii. p. 1109. 



Coluljer constrictor, Latreille, Hist. Nat. Rept, torn. iv. p. 17S. 



Coluber constrictor, Daudin, Hist. Nat. des Rept., torn. vi. p. 402. 



Coluber constrictor, Shaiu, Gen. Zool., vol. iii. part ii. p. 464. 



Natrix constrictor, Merrem, Versuch eines Syst. der Amphib., p. lOS. 



Coluber constrictor, Fitzinger, Neue Class, der Rept., p. 57. 



Coluber constrictor, Harlan, Med. and Phys. Res., p. 112. 



Black Snake, Vulgo. 



Description. The head is elongated, oval, with the snout somewhat prolonged 

 and rather pointed; the vertical plate is pentagonal, broader and rounded in front, 

 narrower and with an acute angle behind. The superior orbital plates are long, 

 very large, projecting, and quadrilateral in form, rather larger posteriorly; the 

 occipital are also very large, irregularly pentagonal, broadest before, with three 

 articulating facets for joining with the vertical, superior, and posterior orbital 

 plates. The frontal are pentagonal, with their internal borders broadest, and 

 narrower externally, where they pass in behind the nasal plates to the loral, 

 which is large and of square form; the anterior frontal are sub-round; the rostral 

 is rather elongated and pointed anteriorly, and is very regularly triangular, with 

 its basis down and its apex upwards. There are two nasal plates, of which the 

 anterior is quadrilateral, and sUghtly concave behind; the posterior is nearly of 

 the same size and form, but more semi-lunated or crescentic on its anterior margin, 

 to accommodate the nostril. The anterior orbital plates are two in number, the 

 inferior small, the superior very large, making a considerable portion of the front 

 of the orbit, and then ascending between the frontal and superior orbital to the 

 same horizontal plane as the frontal plate. There are two small posterior orbital 

 plates, the upper is irregularly quadrilateral, the inferior is semi-lunated or 

 crescentic. There are seven large irregularly quadrilateral labial plates on each 

 side, increasing in size from the snout to the angle of the mouth, the third and 

 fourth of which make the inferior wall of the orbit of the eye. 



