79 
COLUBER VERNALIS.—Dekay. 
Plate XVII. 
Craractrers. Head elongated, sub-oyal, distinct; snout rounded; body long, 
cylindrical, covered above with smooth, oblong, rhomboidal scales; grass-green 
above, yellowish-white below. Pl. 128. Sc. 89. 
SynonymeEs. Coluber vernalis, Dekay, MS. 
Coluber vernalis, Harlan, Med. and Phys. Res., p. 124. 
Description. The head is elongated, sub-oval, with the snout somewhat rounded. 
The vertical plate is hexagonal, large, and broadest in front, with an acute angle 
behind; the superior orbital is elongated, quadrilateral, narrow before, broader 
behind, and slightly projecting over the eye. ‘The occipital plates are very large, 
pentagonal, and broadest before; the frontal are large, pentagonal, broad internally, 
narrow externally, where they unite with a single quadrilateral loral plate. The 
anterior frontal are smaller and quadrilateral; the rostral plate is short, broad, 
pentagonal, rounded above and in front, and slightly concave below. The nasal 
plate is single, elongated and quadrilateral; there are two small, quadrilateral 
anterior orbital; the posterior orbital are two in number, small and quadrilateral; 
the inferior wall of the orbit is completed by the third and fourth superior labial, 
of which plates there are seven on each side, quadrilateral, and increasing in size 
from the chin towards the angle of the mouth. 
The nostrils are large, lateral near the snout, and open outwards, a little 
upwards and backwards, in the midst of a single large nasal plate. ‘The eyes are 
large and bright; the pupil black, the iris golden. The neck is contracted. 
