OPHIBOLUS. 87 



Above liglit cLestnut-brown, darker along tbe buck, lighter to- 

 wards the abdomen. Each scale minutely mottled with darker. 

 Beneath reddish yellow, obscurely blotched with light-brown. A 

 series of 52 dorsal blotches from head to tip of tail, the 42d opposite 

 the anus. These are irregularly and transversely rhomboidal, six 

 or seven scales wide, one and a half to two and a half long, and se- 

 parated by intervals of about 3 scales, thus wider than the blotches. 

 Their color is darker chestnut, with still darker margins, and some- 

 times with a faint areola lighter than the ground-color. On each 

 side and alternating with this series, is a second on the 2d to the 6th 

 outer rows, and about a scale long; then a third again alternating on 

 the 1st, 2d, and 3d rows, sometimes involving the edges of the scu- 

 tellffi. These, though smaller than the dorsal spots, are similar. 

 They are sometimes confluent with each other, though rarely with 

 those of the back. There is a dark stripe from the eye to the angle 

 of the mouth. 



Anderson, S. C. 203. 48. 21. 24. 3|. Miss C Paine. 



Georgia. 200. 44. 21. 28f. 3^. Prof. C. B. Adams. 



6. Op3si1>olus eximius, B. & G. — Grayish ash, with one dorsal 

 series of upwards of 50 transversely elliptical chocolate blotches, with two 

 other alternating lateral series on each side. 



Syn. Coluber eximius, Dekay, (Mss.) and N. York Fauna, Kept. 1842, 38. 

 PI. xii, fig. 25.— Hakl. Journ. Acad. Nat. Sc. Philad. V, 1827, 360; and 

 Med. & Phys. Res. 1835, 123.— Storer, Rep. Rept. Mass. 1839, 227. 



Pseudoelaps Y, Berth. Abh. K. Ges.Wiss. Gcitt. 1, 1843, 67. PI. i, fig.ll & 12. 



House Snake, Milk Snake, Chicken Snake, Thunder and Lightning Snake. 



Muzzle rather broader, and the head more depressed than in the 

 first described species of the genus : in other respects generally 

 similar, like them having all the scales -hexagonal, those on the back 

 scarcely narrower than those on the sides, although rather more 

 elongated than usual. Vertical longer than broad, shorter than the 

 occipitals. General color above yellowish gray, with a dorsal series 

 of large blotches, 55 in number from the head to the tip of the tail, 

 the 45th opposite to the anus. These are transversely elliptical, about 

 four scales long, covering 12 to 15 scales across the back, (more an- 

 teriorly than posteriorly,) and separated by intervals of one and a 

 half to two scales, all of nearly the same width. The spots them- 

 selves are grayish brown or chocolate, with a broad black border, and 



