COLUBER PUNCTATUS. 83 
its hiding-place towards the dusk of evening, or after rain, when the insects on 
which it feeds have been washed from their hiding-places. 
4 
GeocrarmcaL Distrisution. The Coluber punctatus inhabits the Atlantic 
states from Maine to Florida inclusive. 
Generat Remarks. ‘The first notice of this animal is to be found in the 
Gleanings of Natural History, by George Edwards,* where may be seen an 
excellent plate of it. He says it was sent to him by his friend Bartram, from 
Pennsylvania; that “its upper side, except a white ring round the neck, is of 
shining jet black; the belly, or under part, is of a fine light red, and the eyes 
flame-colour.” A second specimen was also sent him, the “upper side of which 
was chestnut-colour, and the under side deep yellow.” 
Linneus next gave the characters very distinctly of this animal, from a specimen 
furnished him by Dr. Garden. Other naturalists only copied him, till Bose 
observed it in Carolina, and communicated a very full description of it to Latreille, 
which was afterwards copied by Daudin. 
Merrem, from the plate to which he refers in Edwards, being without the 
three longitudinal rows of dark spots that Linnwus gives as one of the distinctive 
marks of his animal, as well as from its having a collar or ring, not mentioned in 
Linnzus, thought it a new species, and called it after Edwards. Yet there is no 
doubt that the Natrix punctatus and the Natrix Edwardsii of Merrem are one and 
the same animal. Indeed, I have more than once seen individuals of this species 
without the rings at the neck, and as frequently without the spots; and Say has 
seen the central row double. 
This serpent has been arranged in very different genera by different naturalists. 
Some have placed it in Calamaria; others in Coronella; others in Homolosoma; 
* Gleanings of Natural History, vol. iii. p. 289. + Ibid., p. 290. 
