770 



REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1898. 



HETERODON SIMUS Linnaeus. 



Heterodon simiis Holbrook, N. Amer. Heipt., IV, 1842, p, 57, pi. xv. — Baird and 

 GiRARD, Cat. N. Amer. Kept., 1853, p. 59. — Cope, Check-list N. Amer. Batr. 

 Kept., 1875, p. 43. 



Coluber aimus Linn^us, Syst. Nat., 12tli ed., I, 1766, p. 216. — Gmelin, Linnaeus 

 Syst. Nat., IStli ed., I, Ft. 3, 1788, p. 1086. 



Heterodon platyrhinus Schlegel, Ess. Phys. Serp., 1837, p. 97, pi. iii, figs. 20, 22. 



Fig. 167. 



Heterodon simus Linn^ds. 



= 1. 



Abbeville, South Carolina. 



Cat. No. 1197, U.S.N. M. 



Frontal plate as broad as long, generally longer than the parietals. 

 Eostral broad and liigb. Azygos encircled by three to five small plates. 

 Mouth very short. Dorsal rows twenty- five, the three or four externals 

 smooth. Dorsal series of thirty-five blotches, with one alternating 

 series on each side. Abdomen yellowish, scarcely maculated. A nar- 

 row black band across the forehead in front of the frontal and passing 

 through the eye across one labial to the angle of the mouth. 



Frontal plate subheptagoual, sometimes nearly triangular ; with three 

 sides anteriorly, the lateral against the prefrontals, the middle against 

 the azygous plates, the sides very obtusely angled. Superciharies rather 

 short, broad. Parietals very short, almost as long as broad. Pre- 

 frontals moderate, the exterior angle scarcely reaching the angle of the 

 loreal; the two separated by three small plates posterior to the azygos. 

 Internasals not mucli smaller. Azygous plate resting anteriorly against 

 the rostral and touched by the inner angle of the internasal. There is 

 a small plate on each side, between it and the notch at the junction of 

 the anterior and prefrontals, while behind, the space between it, the 



