48 PEOCEEDIXGS OF THE ACA-DEMY OF [Jan., 



Color black above, brownish in the young; the dorsal spots are 

 indistinctly outlined, but not enough, as a rule, to make them out 

 except in young or newly-shed individuals. In some specimens 

 the skin on the sides is more or less red. The belly is usually 

 slaty black behind, yellow anteriorly, more or less maculated with 

 black blotches; throat and chin white; labials yellow, margined 

 with black. A living specimen from Pennsylvania, 1080 mm. 

 long, shows thirty indistinct dorsal spots, and has considerable red 

 skin on the flanks, which shows between but does not invade the 

 scales. Reaches a length of about 1850 mm. (tail 320). 



Hab. — Massachusetts to Illinois and southwest to Texas; rare 

 in Florida. 



Coluber obsoletus lindheimeri B. and G. 



Scofophis LincUieimerii B. and G., I. c, 74 ; C. o. obsoletus (part) 

 Cope, I. c, 635, and Kep. Nat. Mus., 844 ; C. obsoletus (part) Boul., 

 I. c, II, 50. 



Frontal about equal, or a trifle shorter than the snout; the an- 

 terior border about equals its length and the lateral angles are 

 obtuse, so that the shape is subtriangular; temporals 2(3)-3 (4); 

 8 upper labials (in one case 9), fourth and fifth in eye; 12 to 14 

 lower labials, from four to six touching the anterior chin shields; 

 scales in 27 or 29 rows (five have 27, three have 29, one has 31), 

 from 11 to 21 keeled, never very strongly ; ventrals 227-231; 

 subcaudals 70-81. 



Yellowish above with a dorsal series of dark lead-colored spots, 

 five or six scales long and thirteen to fifteen wide, the interspaces 

 of the body color are about two scales long and many of the scales 

 have lead -colored centres; another series of elongated blotches on 

 the' third to the seventh row; ventrals with dark spots on the 

 ends and outer scale rows, at intervals of several scoles, otherwise 

 yellowish white, often clouded posteriorly. The bases and margins 

 of many scales in the light interspaces are rusty red in every living 

 specimen that I have seen; this fades rapidly in alcohol. Top of 

 head is uniform lead color without bands. The eye is rather 

 large. Length 1525 mm. (tail 230). 



Hab.— Texas. 



The distinctness of the color pattern at all ages, the red on the 

 scales of the flanks, the slight but, as it appears to me, very gen- 

 eral difference in the shape of the frontal, with an ap))arently 



