28 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ACADEMY OF [Jau.^ 



largest; in any event E. s. sirtalis not infrequently has but one 

 second temporal. 



Examination of the type of E. hrachystoma Cope leaves little 

 ground for regarding it as anything more than a dwarfed and 

 shortened E. s. sirtalis. The colors appear to have faded; on 

 stretching the skin, indications of the dorsal spots appear, and the 

 ventral spots of sirtalis are not absent, as stated in the description, 

 but are plainly present, though small. The body is dispropor- 

 tionately short, as is the mouth, which, instead of reaching back 

 as far as the hinder end of the parietals, ends quite in advance of 

 that point; with which shortening the reduced number of labials is 

 doubtless correlated. 



Hah. —E. s. sirtalis is found over the United States and southern 

 Canada, east of the great plains, but is chiefly from east of the 

 Mississippi river. 



Eutaenia sirtalis parietalis Say. 



Coluber parietalis Say, Long's Exp., I, 18G (1823); E. s. parietalis, 

 E. s. conciiina, E. s. tetratmnia, E. s. dorsalis, E. s. obscura (part), 

 E. elegans ordinoidcs and E. infernalis infernaUs (part) Cope, I. c, 

 654-664, and Rep. Nat. Mas., 1074-1081 ; T. ordinatus var. sirtalis 

 (part) and T. o. var. infernalis (part) Bonl., I. c, I, 206, 207 ; 

 T ham nophis parietalis Stej., No. Am. Fauna, No. 7, 214 ; Van Den., 

 /. c, 201. 



This subspecies has usually 19 rows and 7 labials; occasional 

 examples have 21 rows and the labials are sometimes 8; the color 

 is dark brown, bluish, black or even green; dorsal stripe distinct 

 and variable in color, white, blue, yellow or red; the laterals are 

 distinct owing to the presence of more or less of the dark body 

 color on the outer rows and ends of the ventrals; the upper row of 

 spots commonly fuses into a longitudinal black stripe, with which 

 the lower row sometimes connects above; the skin on the sides is 

 bright red, sometimes extending on to the scales so that the sides 

 appear to have a denticulated pattern of black and red. This is 

 often seen in living snakes only when the scales are stretched apart, 

 but in alcoholic specimens the spaces between the lower row of spots 

 seem to fade rapidly to white, and the denticulated pattern is then 

 very distinct. The belly is yellow, green or bluish slate, and the 

 spots near the ends, though small, are plainly to be seen at the 

 base of each ventral; top of head olive or reddish yellow; an 

 occasional labial with a narrow dark margin. 



