Hurter — A Contribution to the Herpetology of Missouri. 501 



son County, on a sunny slope of the Ozarks, under some rocks. 

 Their markine is also a little different from that of those that 

 I have found in some more Southern States, — Texas and 

 Alabama. 



Another very peculiar snake is Tantilla gracilis Baird & 

 Girard, a so-called *' suspicious snake." It belongs to a class 

 of snakes called Opisthoglypha, serpents having grooved 

 teeth or fangs situated in the back of the jaw, contrary to the 

 Proteroglypha, which have the fangs in the front of the jaw, 

 to which class belong the deadly Cobra of India and the Coral 

 Snakes of America. In the species under consideration, the 

 fangs in the rear of the mouth are generally a little separated 

 from the rest of the teeth and are directed backwards 

 and grooved on their posterior or concave side. These 

 grooves communicate with the poison ducts. Most of these 

 snakes are only small, as are also the specimens under consid- 

 eration, and therefore could not inflict on a person a danger- 

 ous wound, whereas the small animals, which they catch, are 

 said to be worked back in the mouth, stung by these fangs 

 and so paralyzed by the poison as to become an easy prey for 

 the snake. This species is so far only mentioned from Texas, 

 but I have found specimens only a few miles from the city 

 of St. Louis, very likely their most northern and eastern 

 record. In Jefferson County they become more abundant. 

 This serpent is a representative of the Sonorian region. 



Among the chelonians or turtles we made one good find, as 

 we discovered the Louisiana Mud Turtle, but so far only in 

 one specimen, near Poplar Bluff, Butler County. It was 

 found under a log, a good distance away from any water. 

 Professor H. Garman, in his synopsis of Reptiles and Am- 

 phibians of Illinois, records Kinosier-num pennsylvanicum, the 

 Eastern Mud Turtle, as common in southern Illinois ; but our 

 specimen is Kinosternum lo2iisia7iae Baur, and quite different 

 from its eastern congener, which is found all through the 

 States of Louisiana, Texas and Arkansas. Very likely this 

 will be the most northern limit to its distribution. 



To the list of batrachia I have to add two species. The 

 first is Plethodon erythronotus Green, so far never recorded 

 from the western side of the Mississippi River. The late 



