1888. ] PROCEEDINGS OF U' rED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 389 



14418: 239-2: 27: 970? 



This beautiful species is of considerable interest from the intermedi- 

 ate position it occupies between the G. guttatus and the C. quadrivittatus. 

 The absence of keels of the scales and the dorsal color spots ally it to 

 the former, and especially to the subspecies C. g. sellatus; but the ab- 

 sence of lateral and ventral spots and head-bands and presence ot lon- 

 gitudinal stripes ally it to the latter. The width of the frontal plate 

 is also characteristic. It is a very handsome animal. 



Coluber rosaceus Cope. 



The proper application of the Linnsean generic name Coluber only 

 appears after considerable criticism of the work of the earlier writers 

 on reptiles. The first author to use the name after Linnaeus was Lau- 

 renti, in 1708, in his Specimen Synopsis Eeptilium, published at Vienna. 

 He includes in it ten species, of which eight can be determined. Of 

 these three are Viperidse, one is a crotalid, and four are harmless snakes. 

 All of the venomous and three of the harmless species bear Linna?an 

 names, and all of them are members of the Linnsean genus Coluber. It 

 remains to be determined for which of these types the name Coluber 

 of Lauren ti must be retained. The evidence is furnished by the author 

 in the following foot-note attached to the generic character : 



Colnbri venenata absque nlla iDJuria accepta ferocissima irruunt iu hominern. 

 In the opinion of Laurenti the Colubri were poisonous, and this was 

 probably due to the fact that the only species of his list with which he 

 was acquainted by actual observation were the European vipers he in- 

 cluded in it. The poisonous species are then the types of the Coluber 

 of Laurenti. 



The next author to use the name Coluber was Treviranus in his 

 Biologie ad Philosophic d. natur, Gottingen, 1802. He indicated but one 

 species, G. natrix. As this species is the type of the Natrix of Lau- 

 renti of 1798, it can not be used in that connection. 



Oppel, in his work on Reotilia published in 1811, gave the following 

 species under the genus Coluber: 



C. melanocephala L. C. natrix L. 



C. cursor. C. mycterizans L. 



C. cesculcvpii Ginel., Linn., 1788. G. ibiboca. 

 C. canus L. G. cyaneus L. 



G. viperinus L. G. carinatus L. 



Of these species the G. cursor and C. ibiboca are not Linmeau, and the 

 G. viperinus and C. natrix belong to a genus which had been already 



