4 University of Michigan 



The specimen from Appomattox County, Virginia (U.S.N.M., 

 No. 4466), lacks the head but otherwise shows itself to be almost 

 identical with the type. The ventral borders of the red saddles 

 are, however, less well defined, and black pigment on the belly is 

 less regularly distributed. 



The specimen from Alberene, Virginia (U.S.N.M., No. 25321), 

 shows a few differences from the others. The twenty-first row of 

 scales is represented by four scales on one side of the body, the 

 lower labials are 9 on each side, the loreals are present, the upper 

 anterior temporals are present although small, and the number of 

 red saddles reaches 25. Furthermore the black borders of these 

 saddles show very little of that widening in the mid-dorsal region 

 that is so characteristic of elapsoides. The red saddles extend 

 well upon the ventral plates and are sharply delimited by their 

 black borders. Otherwise there is ver}' little black pigment on the 

 belly. The whitish cross-bands are rather strongly mottled with 

 darker on the sides, and all the dorsal scales in the red areas are less 

 strongly, but very distinctly, mottled with dark. In scutellation 

 this specimen is perhaps nearer to L. triangulum triangidum, but 

 it can certainly never be regarded as identical with that form, 

 and, all things considered, it seems much better to identify it 

 provisionally as virginiana. 



The specimen from the District of Columbia (Museum of 

 Zoology, University of Michigan, No. 52203) is much more puz- 

 zling. The scutellation is closely like elapsoides, but the whole 

 snake is larger and stouter, measuring 581 mm. even with the tip 

 of the tail missing. Furthermore the red saddles number 27 and 

 overlap the ends of the ventral plates only a little. The black 

 borders of the saddles show scant if any tendency to widen in the 

 mid-dorsal region, and the head shows faint but recognizable 

 vestiges of the common parietal and supraocular spots of trian- 

 gidum and some specimens of L. triangidum syspila (Cope). There 

 are no lateral spots alternating with the dorsal saddles, but ante- 



