500 Trans. Acad. Sci. of St. Louis. 



the Cottonmouth, Black Moccasin or Water Moccasin (Ag- 

 kistrodon piscivorus Lacepede), a real poisonous snake not 

 to be confounded with what the farmers and fishermen in the 

 northern and central part of the State call Water Moccasin, 

 which is the common Watersnake {Natrix sipedon Linnaeus), 

 a non-poisonous snake, but which, in old specimens, has a 

 very close resemblance to the true Cottonmouth, so that it 

 takes a person already very familiar with the habits of either 

 of them to distinguish one kind from the other. In the year 

 1892, when we had a very high river and all the bottom lands 

 opposite the city of St. Louis were inundated so that the 

 Watersnakes had sought a refuge in some of the larger trees 

 yet projecting out of the water, we captured a few of them 

 by approaching the trees with a skiff. 



At the request of the Agricultural Department of Wash- 

 ington, D. C, 1 sent them some very large specimens of the 

 common Watersnake, accompanied by a large Cottonmouth, 

 just to show the close resemblance of the two kinds. 



The next species I wish to mention is a true Watersnake 

 (N^atrix fasciata Linnaeus), the Banded or Southern Water- 

 snake. We found these to be very abundant in Butler and 

 Stoddard Counties. They have the same habits as all other 

 water snakes, and those which we found and captured were all 

 gorged with small pikes. 



Holbrook's Watersnake or the Diamond Watersnake {Na- 

 trix rhombifer Hallowell) is our next species. I have caught 

 specimens of this kind right opposite St. Louis, in Madison, 

 St. Clair and Monroe Counties, Illinois, but had not the 

 opportunity to find any in Missouri until this year, when I 

 found them in Butler and Stoddard Counties. They were 

 plentiful, and also show a little different marking, particu- 

 larly on the ventral side of the body, from those which we 

 caught in Illinois. They represent plainly only a variety of 

 the common Watersnake, as Professor Samuel Garman in his 

 synopsis of North American snakes has arranged them. 



The last kind of serpent to report as new to the State is 

 Haldea striatula Linnaeus, the Little Brown Snake, a small 

 slender animal hardly over a foot in length. We found 

 these for the first time in the neighborhood of Pevely, Jeffer- 



