38 PKOCEEDIXGS OF TOE ACADEMY OF [Jan., 



Tropidonotu8 rhombifer Hallowell. 



Pioc. Acad. Phila., 1852, 177 ; Nerodia Ilolhrookii and i\". rJiomhifer 

 B. and G., I. c, 4.'5 and 147; Natrix rhomhlfera Cope, I. c, 673, and 

 Rep. Nat. Mus., 9G3 ; T. fusciatus (part), Boul. I.e., I, 242. 



Size large; scales in 25 or 27 rows (Cope states that in thirteen 

 individuals he found only one with 25 rows; whereas, in eight, I 

 find five with 25, one with 26 and two with 27); oculars 1-2 

 (occasionally 3 or 4 post-oculars) ; tempoi-als 1-2 (3); ujiper 

 labials 8; ventrals 141-150; subcaudals 57-78. 



Reddish brown, occasionally pale yellowish brown, darker on 

 the back; a dorsal series of 35-40 black blotches, six or seven 

 scales wide and two or three long, separated by rather longer inter- 

 spaces; on each side an alternating series of vertical rectangular 

 blotches, each of which is connected by a black oblique bar from 

 its upper corners to the contiguous lower corners of the dorsal spots. 

 Irregular cross-bauds on the tail. Belly yellow or gray, with an 

 orange tinge posteriorly; a roundish black spot at the end of each 

 ventral. Top of head olive brown; upper labials lighter olive; 

 lower labials and throat yellow; all the labials narrowly margined 

 Avith brown. This snake resembles T. tazispilotus, but has fewer 

 scales and the spots are connected at the angles. Length 1,115 

 mm. (tail 220) ; probably reaches the size of T. s. fasciatus. 



Hab. — Southern Illinois and Indiana to Texas; extends south to 



Vera Cruz. 



Tropidonotus cyclopium Dum. and Bib. 



Erp. Gen., VII, 576 (1854); Cope, I. c, 673, and Rep. Nat. Mus., 961 ; 

 Boul., I. c, I, 244. 



Size large; scales in 29 rows (occ. 31); oculars 1-2 (3); tem- 

 porals 1-2 (3); upper labials 8 (7); almost always 2, 3 or 4 sub- 

 oculars, forming with the })re- and post-oculars a ring around the 

 eye; ventrals 135-150; subcaudals 64-81. 



Greenish or dark olive; irregular, broken darker bands, about 

 the width of one scale, across the back to about the seventh row, at 

 intervals of about two scales; oi)i)osite the interspaces, on each 

 side, a vertically elongated l)lack blotch extending from the third 

 to the sixth row ; l)e)ly yellowish or greenish white, the exterior 

 base of each ventral clouded with dusky, which increases posteri- 

 orly; top of head dark brown; lower half of upper labials lighter; 

 all labials witli dark mr.rgins. The whole pattern is obscure, and 



