1868] 183 [Allen. 



since. Decidedly subterrestrial in its habits, and apparently noctur- 

 nal. More frequently turned up by the plough or hoe, than seen 

 crawling on the surface. It seeks to escape by trying to bury itself 

 in the earth, and not by flight, as do the other species. Dr. Storer 

 states he had but a single poorly preserved spex'imen, received from 

 .Professor Adams, Avho found it at Amherst. 1 have generally con- 

 sidered it far from rare, however, at Springfield, having captured 

 several in a season. Of late it seems less common, as I have found 

 but two or three specimens in several years. It seems to be even 

 much rarer in the eastern part of the State, where, by the naturalists 

 of this section, its existence in Massachusetts was not long since 

 seriously questioned. Prof A. E, Verrill, in his list of the Reptiles and 

 Batrachians of Oxford County, Maine (Proc. Bost. Soc. Nat. Hist., 

 Vol. IX, p. 196), states that he had found that the Storeria occipito- 

 maculata had been mistaken for this sjjecies in Maine, and adds that 

 it seemed to him "quite probable that the single imperfect specimen 

 mentioned in Dr. Storer's Report on the Reptiles of Massachusetts, 

 was also a Storeria, since," he says, "no other specimens have been 

 found in this State, to my knowledge." In a small collection of Rep- 

 tiles made by the writer at Springfield, in 1864, and sent to the Essex 

 Institute, was one of this species, which is thus referred to in the 

 minutes of the meeting of the Institute, held December 12, 1864. 

 " Mr. Putnam mentioned that in a collection of reptiles received 

 from J. A. Allen, Sjiringfield, during the past season, there was a 

 specimen of the Celuta amcena Bd. and Gir. (AVorm Snake). Mr. 

 Allen had for several years past been confident that he had seen 

 this species near Springfield, but had never been able [by some 

 mistake thus erroneously stated] to secure a specimen before. The 

 only notice of this snake having been found in New England, is 

 by Dr. Storer Several authors having doubted the identifica- 

 tion of Storer's specimen, the present one from Mr. Allen places the 

 species beyond doubt in the Massachusetts fauna." (Proc. Ess. Inst, 

 Vol. IV, p. Lxxxiii.) Since the publication of Prof. Verrill's list, in 

 assorting a collection of birds and reptiles received at the Museum of 

 Comparative Zoology from "Waterville, Maine, collected by Prof. C. E. 

 Hamlin, I found a specimen of Carphoiihiops amcenus, so that now the 

 species is also to be added to the fauna of Maine. In 1842, Dr. Hol- 

 brook gave its range (N. Am. Herp., IH, p. 115), as extending from 

 New Hampshire to Florida. Dr. De Kay gives it as ranging from 

 New Hampshire to Pennsylvania, but adds that he had not himself 

 met with it. 



