314 Illinois State Lahonitonj of Natural Hidonj. 



Ancistrodon contortrix, Linn. Copperhead. 



Coluber contortrix, Linn., !Syst. Nat. ed. 10, 1758, p. 216. 



Tri(joiioce2^halus contortrix, Holbr. N. A. Herp., 1842, III., p. 39, 

 pi. 8.— De Kay, Nat. Hist. N. Y., I., Zool. III., Kept, and 

 Amph., 1842. p. 53, pi. 9, tig. 18. 



A(/kistrodo)i contortrix, Bd. and Gir., Cat. N. A. Eept., Pt. I., 

 1853, p. 17. 



Trit/onocephalus contortrix, Dum. et Bi'or., Erp. Gen., 1854, VII., 

 Pt. II., p. 1494. 



Ancistrodon contortrix, Cope, Proc. Acad. Nat. !Sci. Phila., 1859, 

 p. 336.— Davis and Eice, Bull. 111. State Lab. Nat. Hist., 

 I., No. 5, 1883, p. 28; Bull. Chicago Acad. Sci., 1883.— S. Gar- 

 man, Mem. Mus. Comp. Zool., 1883, pp. 120, 178, pi. 8, fig. 1. 



Body moderately stout. Head wide. Neck slender. Tail 

 short and tapering. All the dorsal scales carinate. Ros- 

 tral large. Frontal pentagonal. Generally three prefrontals, 

 the median very small. Loreal present, separating the pos- 

 terior nasal from the superior anteorbital. Anteorbitals three, 

 inferior minute. Postorbitals from four to six. Supralabials 

 eight, the third not reaching the orbit. Infralabials ten. 

 Dorsal rows of scales twenty-three. Ventrals about 150. 

 Subcaudals about 45, the posterior in pairs. 



Color above light chestnut-brown, with a series of inverted 

 Y-shaped brown marks on each side. Color beneath yellowish, 

 with a series of black blotches on each side. Head uniform 

 brown above, each parietal with a small brown spot with a pale 

 margin ; sides with a yellowish white band which posteriorly 

 rounds the angle of the mouth and extends forward on the in- 

 fralabials. 



Length from two to three feet. 



Throughout the State ; rare north, frequent south. 

 Peoria (Brendel), Anna (C. W. Butler). 



This species is very rare in northern Illinois, if it occurs 

 there at all. Dr. Brendel reports having seen but two 

 specimens at Peoria, and these more than twenty years ago. 

 It is not uncommon in the southern part of the State, and 

 Messrs, Boyer and ^trocle report it as not rare in Fulton county. 



