1894. 



PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL MUSEUM. 327 



West; "bouse kiiig-suake" at Oakland, etc. It rattles its tail when 

 offended, and one of my specimens tried to defend itself by biting. Like 

 the following species, it often enters into the houses to hunt rats. The 

 color is different in different specimens. I have not obtained any typi- 

 cal C. g. seUatus (Cope), though on the specimen from Key West the 

 head bands are more obscure and the lateral spots not well defined, 

 some of them — the posterior ones — being rather faint and disai^pear- 

 ing on the tail; many of the dorsjil spots are open on the sides, having 

 only anterior and posterior dark borders ; only the anterior part of the 

 lower surface is regularly tessellated with black spots ; further back there 

 is only a trace left of each black square, and the abdomen thus becomes 

 finely mottled with blackish scales not keeled. 



Another specimen from Orlando shows variations in the direction of 

 Callopeltis rosaceiis (Cope). The belly is checkered and the head is 

 banded in the normal way, but on the back two dark brown stripes 

 extend all the way through the dorsal spots. On the anterior part of 

 the body the lateral black borders of the dorsal spots, as well as the 

 upper black borders of the lateral spots, extend longitudinally from one 

 spot to another, in this way forming longitudinal stripes. A littlefurther 

 back this double black stripe is interrupted, but a less sharply defined 

 brown stripe connects the lateral black border of an anterior dorsal spot 

 with the next behind. Still further back even that brown stripe disap- 

 pears, and the spots have the same appearance as in a common C. guttatus. 

 Even in a young specimen from Ozona, Hillsboro County, there is a 

 tendency to a longitudinal connection of the spots on the sides of the 

 anterior part of the body, but there are no longitudinal dorsal stripes 

 to be seen. The above-mentioned variations are very interesting, and 

 in the future, I suppose, there will be found more connecting links 

 between the various forms clustering around C. guttatus.* 



CALLOPELTIS QUADRIVITTATUS (Ho lb rook). 



I have obtaine<l specimens of this form from different places in 

 Orange County. It is often found in trees, being a very good climber. 

 It enters very often the houses to hunt rats. Caged birds frequently 

 become its prey on such excursions. Why the larger specimens are 

 called "chicken snakes" is easy to understand. 



The young ones are spotted, and sometimes these spots remain con- 

 spicuous in older si^ecimens, too. I once saw quite a large specimen 

 shot in a packing house, where it had been a regular guest for some 

 time. This snake measured nearly two meters and had large j^ellow 

 saddle blotches on its back. It was too much damaged to be preserved. 



SPILOTES COEAIS COUPERII (Ho lb rook). 



This snake, which is generally called "gopher snake" in south 

 Florida, is not very common. I have obtained only one specimen from 



* From Savannah, Ga., I have a specimen of Callopeltis spiloides but I have not seen 

 this species in Florida. 



