S-^OPSES AND DESCRIPTIONS. 121 



Light reddish-brown, lighter below, with fifteen to twenty inverted Y- 

 shaped darker spots, which vary in position from opposite to alternate, 

 on each flank. Aljout twice as many dark spots appear on each edge of 

 the abdomen, sometimes spreading and confluent. All the scales are punc- 

 tulate with brown. Head brighter, more copper-colored, sides with a band 

 of cream color, bordered by a narrow line of light, inclosed by another of 

 dark, passing from the upper postorbital above the labials around the angle 

 of the mouth, and forward through the middles of the infralabials. A small 

 round, light-edged spot of dark brown near the inner edge of each parietal. 

 Tail darker. Terrestrial. 



Ancistrodon piscivorus. {Moccasin.) PL VIII, fg. 2. 



Crotauis piscivorus Lacephde, 1789, Hist. Serp. II, pp. ISO and 424. 

 Ancistrodon piscivorus Cope, 1859, Pr. Ac. N. Sc, Phil., 336 (name). 



Body stout, fusiform, belly broad, back slightly compressed ; head distinct, 

 subtriangular, broad behind, crown flat; tail short, pointed. Head-shields 

 nine. Occipitals more or less broken posteriorly. Rostral broad to the 

 upper extremity. Nasal in two parts, subcqual. No loreal. Anteorbitals 

 three, upper large, middle small, not reaching the nasal, lower very small. 

 Postorbitals four (3—5.) Supralabials eight (7 — 9), third larger, reaching 

 the orbit, first and last small. Infralabials ten (10 — 11.) Submentals one 

 pair large, followed by two pairs of small. Scales in 25 rows, outer 

 faintly keeled. Ventrals 136 to 145. Subcaudals 42 to 54, some of the 

 posterior bifid. 



Brown, reddish or olive. Eleven to fifteen more or less irregular and 

 badly defined vertical bars or pairs of bars of dark browni, with lighter 

 centers, on each flank. Tail dark brown or banded. BroAvnish- yellow 

 beneath, with blotches of dark, which sometimes spread over the entire 

 abdominal surface. Head uniform above, light-colored specimens showing 

 a small round spot of dark near the inner edge of each parietal. A yellow- 

 edged, dark band as wide as the eye passes fi'om the postorl)itals above the 

 angle of the mouth to the neck. Three similar bands on the infralabials of 

 each side. The head-markings are sometimes obsolete. In the Yaviety put/- 

 nax fi'ora Texas the second labial is narrowed or crowded up. The total 

 length of a large specimen is 44^ inches; tail 6| inches. Aquatic. South- 

 ern States, from the Carolinas to Texas. 



