386 KANSAS UNIVERSITY SCIENCE BULLETIN. 



soletus confinis. From the small number of specimens that I 

 have at my disposal I cannot form an opinion as to which is 

 right. However, the Kansas specimens all belong to one spe- 

 cies, and they agree more nearly with C. spiloides as described by 

 Cope (10. 841) than with any other species. 



Coluber obsoletus Say. 



Coluber obsoleltts Say, in Long's Esped. Rocky Mts., I, 1823, p. UO. 

 Coluber alleghenienxiti Holbrcok, N. Amer. Herpt., I, 1836, p. 111. 

 Scotophis aUegheniensis Baird and Girard, Cat. N. Amer. Rept., Pt. I, Serp., 



1853, p. 73. 

 ScolojMs obsoletus Kennicott, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila., 1860, p. 330. 



Cope (10. 844) gives two subspecies. Only one of these — C. 

 obsoletus obsoletus — occurs in Kansas. 



Coluber obsoletus obsoletus Say. 



MouDtain Black Saake or Pilot Snake. 



Twenty-seven or twenty-five rows of dorsal scales; about ft 

 teen rows keeled. Frontal regularly pentagonal. Supercilia- 

 ries broad posteriorly, narrow anteriorly. Prefrontals large. 

 Internasals moderate, quadrate. Loreal small, trapezoidal. 

 Rostral large, slightly rounded above. Pregenials larger than 

 postgenials. Upper labials eight or nine, si.xth and seventh 

 largest; fourth and fifth entering the orbit. Lower labials 

 eleven or twelve, sixth or seventh largest. 



The following are the dimensions and scutellation of ten speci- 

 mens from Douglas county : 



Color above black. Dorsal spots indistinctly outlined. 

 When the spots are distinguishable the narrow interspaces are 

 red. Dorsal spots large, quadrangular; thirty to forty from 

 head to anus. Alternating with them are smaller elongated 



