230 VERTEBRATE ANIMALS OF THE UNITED STATES 



grooved; scales smooth; anal plate divided; 2 nasals and 2 loreals on each 

 side: about 10 species in Mexico; i in the United States. 



T. lyrophanes (Cope). Length 700 mm.; tail 100 mm.; color gray, 

 with about 20 pairs of brown blotches on the back in front of the anus; 

 tail and sides also blotched; scales in 21 rows: southern Arizona and 

 California. 



Family 4. Elapidae. — Elaphine snakes. Poisonous snakes with 

 usually many teeth in both jaws, the front pair of teeth in the upper 

 jaw forming a pair of short rigid fangs which are perforated each by a 

 poison canal opening at the tip; subcaudals in two rows; head covered 

 with plates and not scales: about 140 species in India, Africa, America 

 and Australia, including many very poisonous ones; i genus in the 

 United States. The largest of these snakes is the Indian cobra, which 

 may attain a length of 10 or 12 feet and is, perhaps, the most deadly 

 serpent known. 



Micrurus Wagler (Elaps Schneider). Body slender and cylin- 

 drical; head small; no loreal; scales smooth and in 15 rows; anal plate 

 divided: many species in tropical America; 2 in the United States. 



M.fulvius (L.). Coral snake; harlequin snake. Length 930 mm.; 

 tail 70 mm.; color red, black and yellow, arranged in bands encircling 

 the body, there being about 14 broad red bands separated from as many 

 broad black bands by narrow yellow rings; head and tail with only black 

 and yellow; upper labials 7: south Atlantic and Gulf States from South 

 Carolina to Texas; a burrowing snake which feeds on lizards and snakes, 

 with a bite that may be very dangerous; the most deadly American 

 snake; three-quarters of those bitten die. 



M. euryxanthus (Kennicott). Similar to Af. _^zmM5, but differing 

 from it in that the first broad band back of the head is red instead of 

 black: southern New Mexico and Arizona. 



Family 5. Crotalidae. — Rattlesnakes and copperheads; viperine 

 snakes. Poisonous snakes with a thick body, a slender neck and a flat, 

 triangular head; upper jaw without solid maxillary teeth, but with a 

 pair of long poison fangs which are perforated each with a canal opening 

 at the tip and lie against the roof of the mouth when not in use, but are 

 erected or directed forward when the animal strikes; a deep pit present 

 between the eye and the nostril; pupil vertical; subcaudals mostly 

 undivided; anal plate undivided; the end of the tail in most species com- 

 posed of horny rings (the rattle); scales keeled: 3 genera and about 18 

 species in the United States; about 6 genera in the Neotropic region and 

 4 genera in the old world; viviparous, but few young produced at a 

 birth, at most a dozen or fifteen. 



