CROCODILIANS. LIZARDS, AND SNAKES. 



929 



longer than the vertical. Tostlront^ls large; prefrontals much smaller. 

 Koslral projecting fcn-ward, acute, causing the snout to be pointed, not 

 recurved nor compressed into a ridge as in Heterodon. Eye small, its 

 center over the third labial, and over the middle of the commissure. 

 Postorbitals two; anteorbital one. The sui)erciliaries are very small 

 and narrow, in one specimen looking like an upper i)ostorbital. One 

 line of temi)oral shields. Loreal small. One nasal; nostril situated in 

 its center, with a rounded groove to the lower edge, sonietimes to the 

 upper, apparently separating two nasals. Upper labials six, the third 

 constituting the greater portion of the orbit below, with the lower post- 

 orbital resting upon it and on the second; all the labials nearly equal 

 in size, fourth and tifth largest. Lower labials eight, fifth largest. 



The back and sides are embraced by about twenty elongated longitu- 

 dinal black rings (the sixteenth opposite the anus), their anterior and 

 posterior sides on the dorsal line, their lateral resting on the outer dor- 

 sal row. Across the back the black is well defined and continuous, 

 about two scales long; on the 

 sides, however (from the first 

 to the third rows), the black 

 is interrui)ted more or less, 

 sometimes reduced to a few 

 scattered scales. The inter- 

 vals between the successive 

 rings are yelloAv, with the cen- 

 ters of the scales dusky (they 

 sometimes have only a narrow 

 margin of yellowish), and on 

 the sides may be seen a dis- 

 tinct rhomboidal black spot 



opposite each dorsal light interval. This is sometimes broken up and 

 confused with the black of the rings on the sides. The large spaces 

 inclosed by the rings themselves are yellowish red (said to be crimson 

 in life), six to nine scales long, and about thirteen wide; they are vari- 

 able in length, being larger at about the anterior third than elsewhere. 

 Beneath uniform yellowish white. The first ring crosses just behind 

 the occipital plates, and in front of it is a narrow black band crossing 

 the middle of the occipitals, from one angle of the mouth to the other, 

 sometimes connected with the lirst ring by a narrow black line. Rest 

 of the head yellowish. Another specimen has twenty-six rings, the 

 twentieth opposite the anus. 



A specimen from Prairie Mer Ilouge has the whole lower wall of the 

 orbit constituted by the third labial, with both anterior and i)osterior 

 orbitals resting upon it. The vertical is more elongated. The anterior 

 dorsal ring, instead of being continucms, is divided anteriorly, and the 

 ends, after approximating, are bent back on the occipitals and extend 

 to the eye. The snout, too, is rather more pointed. In a second speci- 



NAT MUS 98 59 



Fig. 235. 



Cemophora coccinea Blumenbach. 



= 1. 



Volusia, Florida. 



Collection of E. 1). Cope. 



