CROCODILIANS, LIZARDS, AND SNAKES. 

 (Joluber obsoletiis obsoletus Say — Continued. 



847 



Catalogue 

 No. 



Number 

 of speci- 

 mens. 



Locality. 



1713 



1734 



2260 

 12031 

 12020 

 10652 



2421 



13837 

 14435 

 14831 

 15334 

 15074 

 17532 

 17561 



17948-9 



15575 



16490 



New Braunfels, Texas . 



When 

 collected. 



Indiauola, Texas 



Near 32° L 



Mount Carmel, Illinois... t Nov. -,1881 



do : Nov. — , 1881 



Wheatlaud, Indiana j Apr. -.1881 



Prairie Mer Kouge, Lou- 



isiana, 



Olney, Illinois 



Wythe ville. Virginia 



Georgiana, Florida j 



Broad Creek, Maryland 



San Diego, Texas 



St. Louis, Missouri 



Montgomery County, i 



Maryland'. 



Indianapolis, Indiana 



Cherokee, North Carolina 



St. Louis, Missouri 



From whom received. 



Nature of 

 specimen. 



Dr. F. Lindheimer Alcoholic 



type. 



Col.J.D.Graham,TT. S.A do. 

 Capt. John Pope, U. S. A . do. 



L. M. Turner do. 



do ] do. 



Robert Ilidgway | do. 



Jas. Fairie do. 



J. and C. Walker . 



M. McDonald 



William Wittfleld. 

 Thomas ISIarron. . . 

 William Taylor . . . 



Julius Hurter 



Peter Leonbardt . . 



O.P. Hay 



James Mooney . 

 J. Hurter 



do. 

 do. 



It is of an inoffensive disposition and may be handled with impunity. 

 Tlie following" observations concerning" C. obsoletus obsoletus are made 

 by Prof. O. P. Hay:' 



Of the Colubers I liave been able to make observations on C. o. obsoletus alone. It 

 is likely that others have observed and vrritten on the subject, but I have not met 

 with their statements. Dr. G. B. Goode reclvons ^ this species among those which 

 are ovoviviparous, but I am inclined to question this. My son, AV. P. Hay, captured 

 two of these snakes near Indianapolis while they were in sexual union. This was 

 on June 19. The male (Cat. No. 17948, U.S.N.M.), was 5 feet 5 inches long, the 

 female (Cat. No. 17949, U.S.N.M.), 6 feet 3 inches. When they were separated, the 

 intromittent organs of the male were everted some 3 inches. A dissection shows 

 that the hollow portion of the organ extends behind the vent 3 inches, while the 

 retractor muscles form a cord which extends back nearly to the tip of the tail. On 

 opening the female I find in her sixteen eggs. Of these eggs four lie about in the mid- 

 dle of the reptile's body, while the other twelve occupy a much more anterior position, 

 the one farthest forward being within 8 inches of the snake's snout, the hindermost 

 one only 9 inches farther back. Several of these eggs are lying apparently loose in 

 the body cavity. It might be supposed that they had just left the ovary and were 

 about to enter the oviduct; but they are surrounded each with a covering nearly as 

 thick and tougli as that of the Heterodon. Could these eggs have been in the ovi- 

 ducts and then squeezed out into the body cavity during the time of being entwined 

 with the male? 



I have had an opportunity of dissecting a recently captured female, the length of 

 which was 4 feet 4 inches. The ovaries lie in the region situated about two-thirds 

 the distan<e from the head to the vent. Each oviduct ends close to the correspond- 

 ing ovary. It seems evident, therefore, that at least some of the eggs of the speci- 

 men described above are really lying loose in the body cavity. In the specimen dis- 

 sected the ovarian eggs are very immature, none of them exceeding about a quarter 

 of an inch in length. It may be of some interest to add that this female had the 

 anterior three-fourths of the body ornamented with blotches of a decided red color, 

 the red occupying both the surfaces of the scales and the skin between them. The 

 blotches were separated by scales, which were x>avtly yellow. Soon after death a 

 great part of the red disappeared. The stomach contained eiglit wild mice, six of 

 them young. 



' Proc. Ind. Acad. Sci., 1891, p. 118; Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., XV, 1892, p. 395. 

 - Proc. Am. Assoc. Adv. Sci., XXII, 1874, p. 185. 



