REPTILES 



225 



TV. grahami (Baird & Girard) . Length 640 mm. ; tail 120 mm. ; color 

 brown with a pale middorsal band and a broad pale or yellow lateral 

 band bordered beneath with black; belly plain yellowish: Mississippi 

 Valley, from the Great Lakes to Texas; common. 



A^ clarki (B. & G.). Length 790 mm.; tail 178 mm.; color brown, 

 with 4 bands of deep brown; belly yellow, with 2 brown bands dotted 

 with black : coastal regions from Florida to Texas. 



N. kirtlandi (Kennicott). Length 400 mm.; tail 100 mm.; color 

 light brown or reddish, with 2 series of rather indistinct round spots on 

 the back alternating with a series of large black blotches on each side; 

 belly red in the middle portions, with a row of dark spots on each side; 



Fig. 121. — Matrix sipedon {from Cope). 



upper labials 6: north-central States, from Wisconsin to Pennsylvania 

 and New York; common. 



N. compressicauda (Kennicott). Length 560 mm.; tail 130 mm.; 

 color gray, with irregular, obscure darker bands; belly gray or brown, 

 with a central series of yellow spots; tail flattened at base: southwestern 

 Florida. 



N. sipedon (L.) {N . fasciata'L). Common water snake (Fig. 121). 

 Length 960 mm.; tail 200 mm.; color brown, with 30 or 40 yellowish or 

 reddish, often indistinct transverse bars which may widen on the sides; 

 belly yellowish or white, wdth many brown or red spots; scales in 23 or 

 25 rows: eastern and central States; westward into Colorado. 



Subspecies of N. sipedon 



'A^. s. sipedon (L.). Bands broken into blotches on latter part of 

 body, old animals uniform brown: Canada to North Carolina; westward 

 to Kansas. 



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