CORONELLA SAYI. 101 
in the valley of the Mississippi; for I have received it from Louisiana, high up 
Red river, from Missouri, from Arkansas, and also many specimens from Alabama; 
which, for the present, I must put down as its northern limit. 
Generar Remarks. Dr. De Kay was the first herpetologist who noticed it as a 
distinct species, and communicated his observations to Say and other naturalists, 
who regarded it only as a variety of the Coronella getula, to which it certainly 
bears a striking general resemblance; yet on minute examination there will be 
found sufficient difference to constitute them distinct species, 
The head of this animal is rather smaller, with the snout more prolonged than 
in the Coronella getula; the colours are differently disposed; the body is shorter 
and the tail longer in proportion; and their geographical distribution is widely 
different; the Coronella getula being found seven or eight hundred miles farther 
north in the Atlantic states than the Coronella getula; whereas, if they were but 
varieties, we might expect to find both animals in the same localities. 
Schlegel was the first naturalist who published a description of this beautiful 
animal, in his excellent work entitled “Essai sur la Physionomie des Serpens.” 
