118 RHINOSTOMA. 



Genus RHITVOSTOIflA, Fitz. 



Gen. Char. Head small, subconical, pointed, continuous with 

 the body. Rostral large, prominent. Two pairs of frontal plates. 

 Vertical cordiform. One nasal ; nostril in the middle. One loral. 

 One anterior and two postorbitals. Superciliaries very small. Eyes 

 small, over the 3d upper labial. Mouth small. Scales smooth, in 

 19 rows. Postabdominal scutella entire. Subeaudal scutellse bifid. 



Syn. RUnostoma, Fitz. N. Class. Kept. 1826, 29. 



Rhinostonia COCCinea, Holbr. — Body yellowisli red (said to be 

 crimson in life), crossed by pairs of black rings, enclosing each a yellow 

 one. 



Syn. Coluber coccineus, Blum, in Licht. and Voir/t, Magaz. V, 1788. PI. v. 

 — Gm. Linn. Syst. Nat. ed. xiii, I, iii, 1788, 1097.— Harl. Journ. Acad. Nat. 

 Sc. Philad. V, 1827, 356; and Med. & Pliys. Res. 1835, 119. 



Heterodon coccineus, Schl. Ess. Phys. Serp. Part, descr. 1837, 102. PL 

 iii, figs. 15 and 16. 



Rhinostoma coccinea, Holbr. N. Amer. Herp. Ill, 1842, 125. PI. xxx. 



Scarlet Snake. 



Body slender, cylindrical, tense, and rigid. Dorsal scales rhom- 

 boidal, rather elongated. Vertical plate very large, cordiform or sub- 

 hexagonal, almost as broad anteriorly as long; obtuse angled before, 

 acute angled behind ; the two outer sides short, parallel. Occipitals 

 large, a little longer than the vertical. Postfrontals large ; prefrontals 

 much smaller. Rostral projecting forwards, acute, causing the snout 

 to be pointed, not recurved nor compressed into a ridge as in Heterodon. 

 Eye small, its centre over the 3d labial, and over the middle of the 

 commissure. Postorbitals two ; anteorbital one. The superciliaries 

 are very small and narrow, in one specimen looking like an upper 

 postorbital. One line of temporal shields. Loral small. One 

 nasal; nostril situated in its centre, with a rounded groove to the 

 lower edge, sometimes to the upper, apparently separating two nasals. 

 Upper labials 6, the 3d constituting the greater portion of the orbit 



