Hurter — Herpetology of Missouri. 85 



7. PiTYOPHis SAYi Schlegel. — The buUsnake. 



I have heard a good deal about this snake but never had 

 the opportunity to capture one myself. Mr. Carroll Miles 

 of Carthage, Jasper County, has sent me a fine living speci- 

 men. This snake was one of the most vicious snakes that I 

 ever came across, and it may be accounted for, as Mr. Miles 

 wrote me on inquiry that they had it for quite a while in the 

 school where it was always teased to the utmost. This last 

 fall Mr. Frank Schwarzgave me also a fine specimen that had 

 been caught in the bluffs in St. Clair County, Ills., opposite 

 the city of St. Louis. 



8. Bascanion constrictor flaviventris Say. — The green 



racer. 



From the same place, Jasper County, and from the same 

 gentleman, I received a specimen of this western variety, and 

 a year ago a second specimen from Mr. W. K. Smith of Cuba, 

 Crawford County. The color of the back of this species is 

 olive green, and the whole under-surface greenish-white to 

 bright yellow. 



9. Natrix cyclopium Baird and Girard. — Cy elope water- 



snake. 



My son Henry found some of these in a small lake near 

 Poplar Bluff, Butler County, May 19 and 22 and October 3, 

 1897. They are hard to catch as they always seek refuge in 

 the deeper waters. 



The late Professor Cope gives the following very good 

 description of this snake: Color brown above, yellow below. 

 On the upper surface there are on each side two rows of 

 alternating short crossbars of a darker color, which are 

 about one and one half scales wide, and are separated by in- 

 terspaces of about three scales. The median line for a width 

 of four scales is not spotted, or is very imperfectly so, form- 

 ing a broad vertebral band of a color darker than the general 

 ground. In young specimens the pattern is very distinctly 

 seen ; but in adults the ground becomes so dark as to obscure 

 it very much. The head is uniform brown, the oral edge of 



