RED BEAD SNAKE. 



Coluber Guttatus. C. nigcr, dorso Jlaro macuJis rubris, aldo- 



mine fusco I'ariegato. 

 Black Snake, with yellow back spotted with red, and abdomen 



variegated with dusky. 

 Coluber Guttatus. Lin. Syst. Nat. p. 385. 

 Bead Snake. Catesb. Carol. 2. t. 60. 

 Abdominal scuta 227? subcaudal scales 60. 



DESCRIBED by Catesby: general length about 

 two feet, but grows to a much greater length: 

 ground-colour black, deepest on the back and 

 faintest on the belly, where it is disposed into a 

 kind of squarish variegations : the upper part of 

 the body is adorned with large spots of a bright 

 red colour, between which, at regular distances, 

 are yellow spots : the sides are spotted with black: 

 the tail measures about a sixth of the whole length. 

 This species is a native of Carolina, and, accord- 

 ing to Catesby, resides under ground, being rarely 

 seen on the surface, but is often dug up in dig- 

 ging for potatoes, &c. and is a perfectly harmless 

 animal. It seems greatly allied, except in the 

 number of abdominal and subcaudal scales, to the 

 lied Spotted Snake before described. 



