74 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ACADEMY OF [Jan., 



€ope. No. 3,609, Academy coll., from Hennessey, Oklahoma, 

 collected and labeled sijqnlm by Cope himself, has more black upon 

 the head than most 0. d. doliatus, while underneath, anteriorly, it 

 has the paired ringi^ of 0. d. cocdneus, on the rest of the belly 

 having parallel lines formed by the lower borders of the dorsal 

 spots quite as close together as those attributed by him to jmral- 

 lelus. 



Hab.- -Maryland to Florida; west to Illinois, Oklahoma and 

 Texas. 



Ophibolus doliatus coccineus Schlegel. 



Coronella coccinea Sch., Ess. Phys. Serp., II, fiT, PI. ? (1837); OjM- 

 bolus doliatus and Osceola elapsoidea B. and G., I. c, 89, 133 ; Osce- 

 ola elapsoidea and 0. d. coccineus Cope, I. c, 606, 609, and Rep. 

 Nat. Mus., 900, 896; Coronella gentilis (part) and G. doliata (part) 

 Boul., I. c, II, 201, 205. 



Body rather more slender; temporals 1-2; ventrals 175-204; 

 subcaudals 31-54; length 535 mm. (tail 70). 



Body color scarlet, comj^letely encircled by pairs of black rings, 

 with interspaces white in the young, yellow in adults; no lateral 

 spots; belly paler than the back; top of head red, with the first 

 black rings crossing the parietals. The pattern is formed by the 

 obliteration of the lateral portion of the black borders of dorsal 

 spots, and the extension of their transverse portion entirely around 

 the body. The lateral spots have disappeared. 



This subspecies seems to be adopting burrowing habits in portions 

 of its range, and, as is frequent in such cases, the head plates and 

 scales are becoming variable, specimens being found without a 

 loreal and with the scales reduced to nineteen rows. This extreme 

 reduction is Ot^ceola elapsoidea B. and G., and is not common, but 

 intermediate stages are frequent; out of some thirty specimens 

 colored as in coccineus, I have met but two without a loreal and 

 with 19 rows. The case is peculiar. If constant the distinction 

 would be a generic one ; on the other hand, the importance of the 

 character involved would seem to lift it out of the ordinary cate- 

 gory of intergradation, for we appear to have a subspecies being 

 transformed into a genus under our eyes. On the whole, it may 

 accord best with a sound method to take no note of this form at 

 its present stage. 



Hab. — North Carolina to Florida and west to the Mississippi 

 river. Specimens without a loreal arc rarely found outside of 

 Florida. 



