1901.] NATURAL SCIENCES OF nilLADELPHIA. 7 7 



and alcoholic, I atn not able to subdivide it. Typical sai/l is 

 black, and has each scale with a white or yellow ccutre; the belly 

 is yellow with black blotches and the head is black with small 

 yellow spots. In many cases the body spots collect into narrow 

 transverse bands, leaving considerable spaces black with more or 

 less traces of the yellow spots; sometimes the lower seven or eight 

 rows of scales are spotted, and above them, on the dorsal area, the 

 spots collect into narrow bands connecting the spotted sides and 

 leaving a series of black, unspotted tracts on the back, three or 

 four scales long and seven or eight wide. This is splendidus B. 

 and G. At the present time the collection of the Zoological 

 Society contains examples of both of these and more or less inter- 

 mediate stages, collected at the same time at Pecos, Tex. On the 

 other hand, No. 4,451 Academy coll. is a very fair example of 

 splendidus collected at Reelfoot Lake, Tenn., in 1895, by Mr. 

 Samuel N. Khoads, and No. 3,585, from southern Illinois, clearly 

 indicates the same pattern, which is therefore not associated with 

 a restricted geographical area. 



Hab. — Southern Illinois to Louisiana and through the southern 

 portion of the plains to western Texas. 



Ophibolus getulus getulus I- 



Coluber getulus L., Syst. Nat., Ed. XII, 382 (1766); Ophibolus getulux 

 B. and G., I. c, 85 ; 0. g. getulus ami 0. g. niger Cope, I. c, 613 ; 

 Coronella getula (part) Boul., I. c, II, 197 ; 0. g. getulus Cope, Kep. 

 Nat. Mus., 914. 



Size larger than 0. g. sayi ; ventrals 210-224; subcaudals 

 40-53; reaches a length of 1,800 mm. 



Black, crossed by transverse bands of white or pale yellow, one 

 and a half or two scales wide, at intervals of from five to ten 

 scales, generally bifurcating on the flanks and joining the anterior 

 and posterior ones, thus forming a chain-like pattern enclosing a 

 series of black dorsal blotches. An occasional Florida specimen 

 has some scales in the black areas with light centres. Two speci- 

 mens, one from Florida and one from Alabama, now in the 

 Zoological Gardens, have narrow white bands crossing the back, in 

 one at intervals of seven, and in the other of ten scales, without 

 bifurcating. The belly is white or yellow, with black blotches: 

 top of head black, nearly all the plates marked with Avhite or 

 yellow; labials yellow, heavily margined with black. 0. g. niger 



