SYNOPSES AND DESCRIPTIONS. 31 



Stoeeria dekayi pi. I,fig.l. 



Tbopidonotus dekayi Holbrook, 1842, N. A. Herp. 71". 53, pi. XIV. 

 Stokeiua dekayj Baird it Girard, 1853, Cat. Serp., 135. 



Small. Body elongate fusiform, belly broad, rounded; head distinct, 

 do] tressed, rounded behind, narrow and angular in front; tail short, about 

 one fifth of the total, tapering gradually, slender near the extremity. Eye 

 moderate, pupil round. Snout prominent. Rostral broader than high. 

 Head-shields normal. Frontal short, broad. Nostril in hinder edge of 

 anterior portion of the nasal. No loreal. One anteorbital. Postorbitals 

 two, sometimes fused. One temporal in contact with the orbitals. Labials 

 7, eye over the third and fourth. Infralabials 7, fourth and fifth large. 

 Submentals two pairs, subequal. An elongate shield behind the fifth and 

 sixth infralabials. Scales keeled, slightly notched at the end, in 17 rows, 

 dorsal narrow, miter very broad. Ventrals 120 — 138. Anal bifid. Sub- 

 caudals 40—60. 



Light brownish (dive, ashy to reddish, with two scries of small black 

 spots, about four scales apart, along the middle of the back. The spots 

 are irregularly placed, and often united across the intervening space, form- 

 ing short transverse bands of about seven scales in width. The spaces 

 between these spots is lighter than the flanks, and separated from them by 

 a dark line connecting the outer edges of the blotches. In the first pair 

 the spots are larger, and extend from the occiput down the back of the 

 head around the angles of the jaws. Head darker, a dark band across the 

 occipitals to the hinder labial, sometimes broken on the sides. A vertical 

 band of black under the eye. Often there is a second series of indistinct 

 spots on the flank below the dorsal vitta, alternating with the vertebral 

 series. Belly uniform, or with irregularly placed dots of black near the 

 sides. Chin and throat more yellow. Spots sometimes obsolete. Maine 

 to Mexico. 



A specimen from Jalapa, Mexico, has 145 ventrals, a bifid anal, and 

 44 pairs of subcaudals. It is only by a close examination that it can 

 be distinguished from Massachusetts specimens. 



Storeria COPEI. 



Adelophis copei Cope, L879, /v. .1///. Phil. Soc.,p. 265 {Duga MSS.) 

 Head little larger than neck; tail pointed, near one fifth of the total. 

 Rostral not produced, projecting very slightly above the level of the muz- 

 zle. Internasals small, triangular. Frontal longer than wide, hexangu- 



