121 



Family ELAPID^. 



Maxillary provided with an erect, immovable poison fang, wliich is 

 grooved in front. Smaller teeth behind the fang or not. Head fur- 

 nished with plates. Loral usually absent. Tail short and conical. 



Of this family there is but a single genus known to inhabit America, 

 namely, the 



Genus ELAPS, Schneider. 



Elapa, Schneider, 1801, 4I, 289 ; Baird and Girard, 1853, 6, 21 ; Gar- 

 man, 1883, 13, 104. 



Body elongated and cylindrical. Head little, if any, wider than the 

 neck ; its upper surface with the nine plates usually found in the 

 Colubridce No loral. Nasals two, with the nostril between, or mostly 

 in the anterior. Anteorbital single, occasionally fused with the post- 

 frontal. Eye small, the pupil round. Scales without keel, smooth and 

 glossy ; arranged in thirteen to fifteen rows. Anal plate divided, rarely 

 entire. Subcaudals divided. 



A genus with numerous species. Its members range from the Ai'gen- 

 tine Republic to the United States, where there are two or three species. 

 One of these, the following, is found from South Carolina to Texas and 

 Mexico. Recently it has been discovered in Southeastern Indiana. 



Elaps fulvius, (Linn.). 

 Coral Snake. 



Coluber fulvius, Linnaeus, 1766, 64-, 381 ; Elaps fulvius, Cuvier, 1817, 

 124, ii, 81; Holbrook, 1842, 5^, iii, 49, pi. 10; Baird and Girard, 

 1853, 6, 21 : True, 1883, 22, xvii, 26. 



Body elongated, slender and cylindrical. Head little wider than the 

 neck, flat above. Loral absent. Anteorbital 1 ; postoi'bitals 2. Upper 

 labials 7, the eye over the third and fourth. Lower labials 7, the fourth 

 large. Scales smooth, arranged in fifteen transverse rows. Ventral 

 jdates 202 to 236. Subcaudals 25 to 44 pairs. 



The colors are black, bright red, and yellow. These are arranged in 

 bands which encircle the body. The head, from the hinder end of the 

 vertical plate to the snout and to the tip of the lower jaw, is black. The 

 remainder of the head is encircled by a baud of bright yellow. Behind 

 this there follow, alternately, bands of black and red, about 13 to 20 of 

 each, to the vent. Each red band is separated at each end from the con- 

 tiguous black band by a narrow ring of bright yellow. The tail is alter- 

 nately black and yellow, there being about four rings of each. In the 

 red bands surrounding the body is usually found a number of scales of 

 a brown cohtr. There may also be one or more small blotches of black 

 in the middle of the ventral portion of the red bands. 



