112 



says that it is commonly believed'that it is the great enemy of the rattle- 

 snake, but that there is no great evidence of this. He, however, tells of 

 one that had as a fellow-prisoner a Grotalophorics miliarms, or Southern 

 Ground Rattlesnake, and swallowed him. I found that in Mississippi 

 this snake had the reputation of destroying rattlesnakes, and it received 

 protection on this account. Dr. Elliott Coues {9, 4, 269) says that the 

 Black-snake (Bascwiion constrictor) and Ophibolus getulus sayi wage a con- 

 stant warfare against rattlesnakes and moccasins. They are said to be 

 uniformly victorious and to eat their victims. It is on account of their 

 prowess in thus destroying poisonous serpents that they have received 

 the name of King-snake. Mr. J. T. Humphreys, Burke county, North 

 Carolina, gives (22, xv, 561) an interesting account of a conflict in a 

 cage between a king-snake, sayi, and a water-moccasin. The former 

 was 42 inches long, the latter 34, but with a considerably larger body. 

 The moccasin was killed, its bones crushed, and, beginning at the head,, 

 the king-snake swallowed 16 inches of the moccasin's body Chloroform 

 was then administered and both snakes preserved. The king-snake had 

 previously, while in captivity, eaten seven snakes. Dr. Yarrow {22, xii, 

 470) describes a specimen of getulus in the National Museum that has 

 two perfect heads. One head is a little larger than the other. The two 

 gullets unite to pass into the one stomach. 



Professor Cope (3, xiv, 613) states that the variety getulus is entireljr 

 inoffensive to man, making no hostile demonstrations. His daughter^ 

 when a girl of 6 or 8 years, had several individuals as pets. They 

 drank milk readily from a cup which she held in her hand. 



Genus EUTAINIA, B. & Q. 



Eutainia, Baird and Girard, 1853, 6, 24 ; Eutcenia, Cope, 1875, 12, 40. 



Form ranging from stout to slender. Head separated from body by 

 an evident neck. Crown-shields 9. Loral present. Nasals divided, 

 wdth the nostril between. Anteorbital 1, Postorbitals 8. Anal plate- 

 entire. Scales keeled, arranged in 19 to 21 rows. 



A genus of snakes closely allied to Natrix, but differing in the 

 undivided anal plate. Confined to North America, consisting of about 

 a dozen species, all intimately related, and some of them exceedingly 

 variable. 



The general color consists of three light strij)es on a darker ground, 

 the intervals with alternating or tesselated spots. Abdomen without 

 square spots. (Baird.) 



