CROCODILIANS, LIZARDS, AND SNAKES. 903 



Seven superior labials; licad wide, distinct; body slender; minieioua black 



rings more or loss split with red 0. jjyrrhomclaH. 



Seven labials; large, robust, head little distinct; black, with or without 



transverse or longitudinal l)ands O. gctulus. 



Seven labials: robust, head not distinct; light brown with small transverse 



reddish dorsal spots faintly dark bordered (). rhombomaculatna. 



(Xix. Scales in 25 rows. 



Seven labials; robust; light brown with a median dorsal, and two lateral 



rows of dark brown spots faintly dark bordered <). mlligaster. 



The distribution of these species is as follows: The 0. f/ctulus has 

 nearly the same Eastern range, not reaching so far north by 10"^, and 

 covers the Sonoran and Pacific regions besides, but is scarcely found 

 in continental Mexico. Tlie 0. pyrrhomehis inhabits the Sonoran and 

 southern part of the Pacific regions. The 0. rho))ibomacuJat us occnines 

 the middle regions east of the Appalachian Mountains, and the O.calli- 

 gaster the corresponding region west of those mountains, and extends 

 west as far as the Pecos Eiver of Texas. 



OPHIBOLUS RHOMBOMACULATUS Holbrook. 



OpMhoIus rhomhomaculatus Baird and Girard, Cat. N. Amer. Kept., Pt. 1, Serp., 



1853, p. 86.— Cope, Check-list N. Amer. Batr. Rept., 1875, p. 37. 

 Coronella rhombomaculafa IIglijrook, N. Amer. Herpt., Ill, 1842, p. 103, pi. xxiii. 

 Lampropeltis rhomhomaculata Cope, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., 1860, p. 255. 

 Coronella calligaster Boulenger, part, Cat. Snakes Brit. Mus., II, 1894, p. 198. 

 Above, light chestnut-brown, darker along the back, lighter toward 

 the abdomen. Each scale minutely mottled with darker. Beneath 

 light reddish-yellow, obscurely blotched with light brown. A series of 



fifty-two to sixty transverse 

 dorsal blotches from head to 

 tip of tail ; about a dozen of 

 them on the tail. These are 

 irregularly and transversely 

 rhomboidal, six or seven 

 scales wide, one and a half 

 to two and a half long, and 

 separated by intervals of 

 ^. „„„ about three scales, thus 



Fig. 222. . ' 



Ophibolcs hhombomaculatus Holbrook. Wider than tilC OlotcheS. 



= 1. ' Their color is darker chest- 



nut, with very narrow, often 

 imperfect, darker margins, and sometimes with a faint areola lighter 

 than the ground color. On each side and alternating with this series 

 is a second on the second to the sixth outer rows, and about a scale 

 long; then a third again, alternating on the first, second, and third 

 rows, sometimes involving tlie edges of the scutella'. These, though 

 smaller than the dorsal spots, are similar. They are sometimes con- 

 fluent with each other, though rarely with those of the back. There is 

 sometimes a faint stripe from the eye to the angle of the month, but 

 this is frequently wanting. A short wide longitudinal band like the 



