180 



Genus IIALDEA, B. & G. 



Haldea, Baird and Girard, 1853, 6, 122. 



A geous containing a single species of small snakes. Head rather 

 elongated, hardly distinct from the neck; the snout pointed. The place 

 of the prefrontals occupied by a single small plate. Postfrontals large; 

 entering the orbits and suppressing the anteorbitals. Loral present. 

 Nasals 2. Scales keeled. Anal plate divided. 



Haldea striatula, (Liun.)- 

 Brown Snake. 



Coluber sir iatuhs, Linnseus, 1766, 04, 375; Haldea striatula, Baird and 

 Girard, 1853, 6, 122; Cope, 1892, 3, xiv, 376; Virginia striatula, Gar- 

 man, 1883, 13, 97, pi. vii, fig. 2. 



A small, slender snake, not exceeding probably one foot in length ; the 

 tail forming about a fifth the total. Head pointed. Crown shields 8, 

 the prefrontals being united. Nasals 2, with the nostril between. A single 

 postorbital and one large temporal. Inferior labials 6. Superior labials 

 5, the eye over the 3d and 4th. Scales in 17 rows, feebly keeled, those 

 of one or two outer rows large and smooth. Ventral plates 119 to 133 ; 

 pairs of subcaudals 25 to 46. 



Color of upper surface grayish or reddish brown. Abdomen yellowish. 

 There is said sometimes to be a light chestnut band across the back of the 

 head. 



Distribution chiefly in the Southern States; said by Prof. S. Garman 

 to occur from Massachusetts to Mississippi. I have taken it in central or 

 southwestern Arkansas. 



Little or nothiug is known concerning the habits of this snake. In a 

 female taken in Arkansas I found about half a dozen long slender eggs, 

 in each of which was found a young Haldea. From the thinness of the 

 egg membranes I judge that the young are brought forth alive and ac- 

 tive. 



Natrix rigida, (Say). 



Stiff Snake. 



Coluber rigidus, Say, 1825, 2, 239 ; Tropidonotus rigidu-i, Holbrook, 

 1842, 54, iv, 39, pi. 10; Regina rigida, Baird and Girard, 1853, 6, 46; 

 Tropidonotus leberis, var. rigidus, Garman, 1883, 13, 28 ; Natrix rigida, 

 Cope, 1892, 3, 668. 



This species has been reported from Indiana, but there is now so much 

 doubt about the matter that I prefer to arrange it among the species that 

 have not yet been taken in the State. Indeed it is doubtful if it occurs 

 webt of the Alleghany Mountains. 



