696 REPTILES—COLUBRIDA. 
Habitat, Massachusetts ?, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, 
North Carolina, South Carolina, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, New Mexico, Arkansas, 
Ohio, Illinois, Missouri, ‘‘ California, Michigan, West Indies.” 
A single specimen of this beautiful little serpent was sent to me by 
Prof. Tuttle, of the Ohio State University. It was captured at Ironton, 
Lawrence county, and is likely to be confounded with the preceding 
species, from which its seventeen rows of carinated scales at once dis- 
tinguish it. Prof. Cope found that in confinement “instead of climbing 
over caladia, ferns, etc., it lived mostly under ground. It had a curious 
habit of projecting its head, and two or three inches of its body above 
the ground, and holding them for hours rigidly in a fixed attitude.” In 
this position its resemblance to a small sprout or plant might easily 
lead to its being mistaken for such, or overlooked by other animals. 
Genus DIADOPHIS. Baird and Girard. 
Body slender, elongated ; head rather short and broad; teeth equal, smooth ; cephalic 
plates normal; postfrontals and prefrontals each a pair; loral present; nasals two; 
postorbitals two ; labials and inframaxillaries rather smal! ; occipitals of fair size ; rostral 
comparatively small, not projecting ; dorsal scales in 15-17 rows ; gastrosteges, 142-240 ; 
urosteges, 35-60 ; anal plate bifid ; occipital region generally with a yellowish-ring. 
Dorsal scales in 15 rows. ; ; ; D. PUNCTATUS. 
Dorsal scales in 17 rows; abdomen saotied ia reottled with black ; extralimital. 
D. ARNYIL 
DIADOPHIS PUNCTATUS Linnzus. 
Ring-necked Snake. 
Coluber punctatus, LINNEZUS, GMELIN, HARLAN, KIRTLAND, STORER, HOLBROOK, DEKay. 
Coluber torquatus, SHAW. 
Natrixz edwardsii, et punctatus, MERREM. 
Homalosoma punctatum, WAGLER. 
Spiletes punctatus, SwAINSON. 
Calamaria punctata, SCHLEGEL. 
Ablabes punctatus DUMERIL and BIBRON, GUNTHER, HALLOWELL, 
Diadophis punctatus, BAIRD and GIRARD, COPE, VERRILL, ALLEN, JORDAN. 
General color above bluish to brownish-black, without spots; a yellow transverse 
band in the occipital region, sometimes this ring is replaced by yellow spots transversely 
arranged ; beneath orange colored to whitish, either uniform or with a medial row of 
spots; labial region yellowish-white ; vertical plate nearly triangular, not as long as 
commissural line of occipitals; upper labials, 8, lower, 9; occipitals long and not trun- 
cate behind ; inframaxillaries reaching to sixth lower labial; eye above the fourth and 
fifth upper labials; dorsal scales in 15 rows; gastrosteges, 148-163; urosteges, 35-56. 
Length, 15 inches ; head, 6 lines; tail, 3 inches; transverse diameter of head, 34 lines; 
of neck, 2% lines; circumference of body 1 inch. 
