CROCODILIANS, LIZARDS, AND SNAKES. 



831 



COLUBER VULPINUS Baird and Girard. 



Coluber vulpinns Cope, Check-list N. Amer. Batr. Kept., 1875, p. 39. — Boulenger, 



Cat. Snakes Brit. Mus., II, 1894, p. 49. 

 Scoto2}his ruljyinus Baikd and Girard, Cat. N. Am. Kept., Pt. 1, Serp., 1853, p. 75. 

 Elaphis ritbriceps Dumkril and Bibron, Erp. Gen., VII, 1854, p. 270. 



Ill tern asals much smaller than prefrontals. Kostral broad. Parietals 

 broad, rather short, longer than the frontal shorter than the muzzle 

 anterior to the frontal plate. Eyes center over the junction of the 

 fourth and fifth labials. Upper labials eight, penultimate one the 

 largest, last somewhat smaller ; lower ten, sixth the largest. Anteriorly 

 the first three or four rows of scales are smooth, then they are obso- 



Fifl. 188. 



Coluber vdlpinus Baird and Girard. 



= 1. 



Racine, Wisconsin. 



Cat. No. 7269, U.S.N.M. 



letely carinated, then more so toward the back, although everywhere 

 moderately so. Gastrosteges and urosteges less numerous than in the 

 other American species. 



Ground color above light-brown. A series of broad transverse quad- 

 rate chocolate blotches extending from head to tail, about sixty in num- 

 ber, forty-four to anus. The first spot anteriorly is divided into two on 

 the nape, and occasionally the blotches anteriorly are irregular, oblique, 

 and varying in size. This occurs, however, only on the anterior fifth 

 of the body, behind which the intervals between the blotches are recti- 

 linear, nearly equal, and about one and a half scales in length. The 

 blotches are generally embraced between the fifth or sixth rows on 

 each side, and are three to four scales long. The sides of the blotches 

 are not linear, but obtuse-angled. On each side is a series of smaller 

 rounded blotches on the 3d to 7th rows similar in color to those on the 

 back, and like them with a black border, sometimes more or less inter- 

 rupted. Another series of subquadrate black blotches, about the same 



