BRANSON : SNAKES OF KANSAS. 



383 



Natrix fasciata erythrogaster Shaw. 



Rod-bellied Water Snake. 



Nerodia erythrogaster Baird and Girard, Cat. N. Amer. Rept., Pt. I, 

 Serp., 1853, p. 40. 



Tropidonotus erythrogaster Holbrook, N. Amer. Herpt., 2d ed., Ill, 1842, 



p. 33. 

 Natrix fasciata erythrogaster Cope, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., XI, ]888, p. .392. 



Tropidonotus fasciatus (var.) erythrogaster Boulenger, Cat. Snakes Brit. 

 Mus., I, 1893, p. 245. 



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^31^ 



Fift. 14. 

 Natrix fasciata erythrogaster Shaw. 



The occurrence of N. fasciata erythrogaster in Kansas is ex- 

 tremely doubtful. I have found no specimen of it in collections 

 that I have examined. Cope (6. 43) records it from Kansas, 

 but in his " Crocodilians, Lizards, and Snakes" he does not 

 do so ; St, Louis, Mo., and the reigon of the Colorado and Zuni 

 survey being the nearest points mentioned. The following de- 

 scription is taken from Cope (10. 975): 



Head elongated, narrowing forward. Gastrosteges most 

 numerous of all the subspecies of the Natrix sipedon. Three 

 postorbitals. An elevated loreal. Dorsal rows of scales, twenty- 

 three, sometimes twenty-five, all very strongly carinated. LTni- 

 form dark bluish black above, lighter on sides ; lateral or ex- 



3— Bull., No. 13. 



