Hurler — Herpetology of Missouri. 181 



Habitat. — From Virginia south to Florida, west to 

 Texas, north to Missouri. Missouri localities : — St. Louis 

 and Montgomery Counties. 



Habits. — I have found the Chicken Snake quite scarce 

 in Missouri. My friend, Mr. E. M. Parker, presented me 

 with a fine half grown specimen from Montgomery Co. 

 Ditmars says ''All the Colubers show a great fondness for 

 eggs and swallow them entire, but as the eggs pass about 

 fourteen inches down the reptile's neck, that portion of 

 the body is pressed against the ground and by a strong 

 steady contraction of the swallowing muscles, the shell 

 of each Qg^ is broken and the fragments are swallowed 

 together with the contents of the eggs and are digested. ' ' 

 My own observations do not agree with this. Whenever 

 I found a snake that had swallowed an egg I always found 

 the egg entire in the stomach, where the shell had been 

 softened by the gastric juice. Chicken Snakes feed on 

 rabbits, rats, mice, birds, young chickens, and eggs. Like 

 many other snakes this one emits a very offensive secre- 

 tion from glands at the end of the tail when overpowered. 

 This secretion is white and viscid. The species is ovi- 

 parous. 



67. Elaphe spiloides Dumeril and Bibron. 



Elaphis spiloides, Colu2)er spiloides, Coluber ohsoletus var. spiloides. 



Description. — Rostral broad. Internasals small. Prefrontals long and 

 broad. Frontal as long as broad or a little longer. Superciliaries 

 twice as v*'ide posteriorly as anteriorly. Parietals long, broad, trun- 

 cate behind. Lorals slender, pointed posteriorly. Anteorbital one, 

 postorbitals two. Temporals 2-3. Upper labials eight, fourth and 

 fifth entering the eye, seventh the largest. Lower labials fourteen, 

 eighth the largest, five in contact with the anterior chin shields, which 

 are much longer than the posterior. Dorsal scales in 27 rows, fifth 

 to eleventh faintly keeled. Ventrals 218-244. Anal divided. Sub- 

 caudals 80-96 pairs. Head distinct from the body. Tail short and 

 slender. 



Color. — Color above ash gray. A dorsal series of about forty-five 

 blotches; anterior blotches about 13 scales wide by 6 scales long; poste- 

 rior slightly shorter. Most of these blotches are rhomboidal. Alter- 

 nating with these dorsal blotches is a series of elongated lateral ones 



