4G PROCEEDINGS OF THE ACADEMY OF [Jan., 



Coluber guttatus L. 



Sysfc. Nat., Ed. XII, 386 (1766); Scotophis fjuttatm B. and G., I. c, 

 78; C. guttatus and C. fj. sellatus Cope, I. c, 633, and Rep. Nat. 

 Mns., 833, 836 ; C, guttatus (part) BouL, I. c, II, 39. 



Froutal a trifle longer than ])road, rather broad behind, usually 

 a little shorter than the snout; oculars 1-2; temporals 2-3 (4); 

 upper labials 8, fourth and fifth entering the orbit; 11 or 12 lower 

 labials, five touching anterior chin shields ; scales usually in 

 27 rovFs (rarely 29), very slightly keeled on about five rows; 

 ventrals 215-240; subcaudals 61-79. Length 1200 mm. (tail 

 190). 



Light red, paler on the sides; dorsal blotches darker red with 

 black borders and a narrow margin of dark red outside of the 

 black ; the dorsal spots reach to about the seventh row of scales ; 

 below these there is a second alternating series of smaller spots, 

 which sometimes have a tendency to run together longitudinally, 

 and a third series on the ends of the ventrals and the two outer 

 rows. lu some specimens the dorsal spots are wider, and the 

 laterals are mostly absent or form an indistinct longitudinal 

 stripe; this is C. (j. sellatus Cope, the type specimens of which had 

 29 rows of scales, but a very similar specimen in my own collec- 

 tion from Lake Kerr, Florida, has but 27. The color beneath is 

 yellowish white, with quadrangular blotches of black on the outer 

 ends of the ventrals. The head is usually, but not always, banded 

 above. 



Hab. — Virginia to Florida and west to the Mississippi river. 



Coluber quadrivittatus Holbrook. 



No. Am. Herp., 111,89, Plate XX (1842); Scotophis quadrivittatus B. 

 and G., I. c, 80 ; G. quadrivittatus and C. rosaceiis Cope, I. c, 633, 

 and Rep. Nat. Mus., 838, 837; C. obsoletus (part) BouL, I. c, II, 51. 



Frontal narrow behind, a little longer than broad in front; tem- 

 porals 2-2 (3); upper labials 8, occasionally 9, and in one example 

 7 on one side, the fourth and fifth entering the eye; lower labials 

 11 to 13, four or five touching the anterior chin shields; 27 rows 

 of scales, of which from five to thirteen are weakly keeled; ven- 

 trals 232-250; subcaudals 86-105 (one examined by me has the 

 abnormally small number of 66). 



Body color yellow or buft, sometimes faintly greenish, with four 

 longitudinal stripes of dark brown ; the laterals on the fourth and 

 part of the third and fifth, and the upper ones on the eleventh and 



