1901.] NATURAL SCIENCES OF PHILADELrill A. 73 



this is sometimes more or less extended transversely, becoming a 

 half-collar; this is the form called vollurk by Cope; often the ante- 

 rior ring is represented l)y a black bar on the nape, and sometimes 

 the ring is altogether absent and there is a light spot on each 

 supraocular and another on the parietals, the rest of the head 

 markings being more or less obsolete; this is teinporalls Cope, but 

 the intermediate stages are so many that it is quite arbitrary to 

 regard these patterns as distinctive. The spots range in color from 

 brown to red. The oblique streak behind the eye is present. 

 0. d. clericus is a transitional form of great variability, and it is by 

 no means always easy to distinguish it from 0. d. inamjulus on the 

 one side and 0: d. doliatns on the other; but I find that on the whole, 

 compared with triangidiis, it lias a greater width and lessened 

 number of dorsal spots and a want of uefiuition in the head 

 markings, associated with fewer ventrals and subcaudals; it may 

 be distinguished from 0. d. doUatus by the fact that the latter 

 lacks the oblique streak behind the eye and rarely shows any head 

 markings beyond a dark bar or blotch across the parietals. 



Hab. — This subspecies seems to occupy the southern portion of 

 the range of 0. d. triangalus. I have seen no examples from 

 further north than Trenton, N. J., and central Illinois. 



OpMbolus doliatus doliatus L. 



I. c, 379 ; 0. d. doliatus, 0. d. parallelus and 0. d. syspilus (part) 

 Cope, /. c, 609, and Rep. Nat. Mus., 889-893 ; Coronella gentilis 

 (part) Boul., I. c, II, 201. 



Form short and stout in adults: temporals '2-2 (3); ventrals 

 200-210; subcaudals 44-55; length about 670 mm. (tail 100). 



Grouud color grayish white or yellowish; dorsal spots brownish 

 red, or red, Avith black borders; they are broad and reach to the 

 first row of scales, often extending well on to the ventrals; the 

 lateral spots are small and largely upon the ventrals, wholly so 

 when the dorsals are Avidest. The belly is whitish or yellow with 

 black blotches; the lower borders of the dorsal spots sometimes 

 form nearly parallel black bands on the ventrals. The extreme 

 of this disposition is parallelm Cope. The top of the head is some- 

 times almost entirely black, but more usually this is reduced to a 

 bar across the parietals, the rest of the head being red or yellow. 

 The post-orbital stripe of the previous forms is absent. 



I cannot find characters which will bear examination in syi^pilus 



