1901.] NATURAL SCIENCES OF PHILADELPHIA. 71 



6.— Scales in 21-23 rows:* 



Size large; black, with centres of scales white or yellow; or 



cross-bands of :<arae color, 1.0. getuius. 



Size small; yellow and black rings; black rings more or less 



divided by red, 3. 0. zonatus. 



Size medium; pale brown; dorsal spots much wider than 



long; no head bands, ... 4. 0. rhombomaculatus. 



c. — Scales in 25 rows; size medium; grayish brown, head bands 



distinct, o. 0. calligaster. 



Ophibolus doliatus L. 



Coluber doliatus L., Syst. Nat., Ed. XII, 379 (176G). 



Size medium to small; head scales normal; loreal small and 

 occasionally absent in one form; oculars 1-2; temporals 2 (l)-2 

 (3); frontal narrow behind in the young, broader in adults; 

 upper labials 7; scales in 21 I'ows (occasionally varying from 17- 

 23); anterior chin shields much the longest; ventrals 165-215; 

 subcaudals 31-55; tail from one-fifth to one-seventh of the length. 



This species covers the United States from the Atlantic coast to 

 the central plains, and extends southwest into INIexico, and varies 

 to an extreme degree, with the usual result in classification. Prof. 

 Cope's scheme of the directive color variations of 0. doliatus, 

 guided by " bathmisra," published in completed form in The 

 American Naturalist, 1893, p. 1066, and finally in The Primary 

 Factors of Organic Evolution, p. 29 (1896), is a remarkable 

 example of the employment of that great gift, the scientific 

 imagination, in a wrong field; for if that work be compared with 

 a large series of doliatus, it becomes evident that the subspecies 

 added by Cope to complete the chain are no more than selected 

 cases, the numberless promiscuous variations being wholly 

 ignored. The course of change from a brown -spotted to a red- 

 ringed snake has not been as orderly, nor as easily marked off, as 

 is there assumed, and iu subdividing the species, natural limita- 

 tions are not readily found. 



Key to the Subspecies. 



a. — An oblique streak behind the eye : 



Dorsal spots reaching to about fifth row; an angular mark 



on head; ventrals 190-214, . . 1.0. d. triangulus. 

 Dorsal spots reaching to third or first row; head bands 



variable; ventrals 175-203, ... 2. 0. d. clericus. 



