84 



movements. Daring the season of love making she seems to toy witb 

 the male, at times darting through the grass, among stones and inta 

 crevices to avoid him. On clear, level ground she is at a disadvantage. 

 There, if she attempts to quit him, a coil of his tail is thrown about her 

 body and his head laid upon her neck, and if it is removed, as promptly 

 replaced, in the evident endeavor to propitiate her. Later in the sea- 

 son they are solitary or live in pairs. 



The eggs of the black-snake are an inch and a half long and an inch 

 in diameter. They are covered with a thick, tough skin. Out of sucb 

 an egg I took a young snake 10.5 inches long. The snout was blunt, 

 while a little sharp tooth projected from the middle of the upper jaw, 

 beyond the lip. (See Agassiz 4; 1, 288; Dr. Weinland, Proc. Essex 

 Inst, ii, 28.) This is an " egg tooth," and its purpose is to enable the 

 young to rip open the tough egg coverings when the time for hatching 

 has come. This tooth is shortly afterward shed. Just the time of lay- 

 ing the eggs and the special way in which the female disposes of them 

 I have not been able to learn. They are in all likelihood hidden away 

 in soft earth or in rotten wood. In one female I found nineteen eggs^ 

 of which seven were in the left oviduct. 



Genus DIADOPHIS, B. & G. 



Diadophis, Baird & Girard, 1853, 6, 112; Garman, 1883, 13, 60. 



Small, slender snakes, with a distinct and depressed head and a tail ot 

 moderate length. Crown-shields nine. Prefrontals two pairs. Loral 

 present. Anteorbitals two. Postorbitals two. Nasals two, with the 

 nostril between. Scales smooth, arranged in fifteen or seventeen rows. 

 Anal plate divided. Ventrals 145 to 237.. Subcaudals 36 to 60, sel- 

 dom more than one-third the number of ventrals. Anal plate divided. 



Diadophis punctatus, (Linn.). 

 Ring-necked Snake. 



Coluber functatus, Linnaeus, 1766, 6^, ed. xii, i, 376; Holbrook, 1842,^ 

 54; iii, f^l, pi. .18 ; DladopJm punctatus, Baird & Girard, 1853, 6, 112 j 

 Garman, 1883, 1-1, 72. 



A snake of small size, having a head distinct from the body, and a 

 tail about one-fourth the total length. Head flat, snout rather broad 

 and projecting beyond the lower jaw. Rostral low and broad. The 

 lower anteorbital small. Upper labials seven or eight, eye over third 

 and fourth, or fourth and fifth. Lower labials eight, fifth largest. 

 Scales smooth, arranged in fifteen rows. Ventrals 148 to 203. Sub- 

 caudals 36 to 60. 



