38 NEW-YORK FAUNA. 



are continued to the extremity of the tail, and from a fancied resemblance to a chain, has 

 friven rise to one of its popular names. Beneath metallic dingy white, tessellated with brown. 



Abdommal plates, 220. Total length, 42-0. 



Caudal plates, 47. Tail, 5-5. 



This beautiful snake, whicli from the celerity of its movements has also acquired the name 

 of the Racer, is not uncommon in the pine woods of New-Jersey, and is also found, but 

 rarely, in what are called the Brush plains of Long Island. They are perfectly harmless, 

 and feed on other reptiles. Their northern and eastern range does not extend beyond New- 

 York, and they are found as far south as Louisiana. My friend Dr. Holbrook has arranged 

 this species under the genus CoroniUa of Laurenti and Schlegel. Its characters, however, do 

 not appear to me to be sufficiently precise and distinct. 



THE MILK SNAKE. 



Coluber eximius. 



PLATE XII. FIG. 2o.— (STATE COLLECTIO.N.) 



Coluber eximius, Dekay. Harljn, Med. and Phys. Researches, p. 123. 



C. cattigastert var. Say. Harlan, lb, p. 122. 



Chicken Sjiake. Storer, Massachusetts Report, p. 227. 



C. eximius. Holbrook, N. Am. Herpetology, Vol. 3, p. 69, pi. 15. 



Characteristics. Ovate chesnut spots over the back ; dark quadrate spots on a light-colored 

 ground, beneath. Length two to five feet. 



Description. Body elongated, tapering rather suddenly from the vent to the tip of the tail. 

 Head small ; neck somewhat contracted. Rostral plate large, emarginate beneath ; central 

 plate pentagonal, large ; occipital plates very large ; upper labial plates fourteen, sixteen 

 beneath. Body covered with smooth sub-hexagonal scales. Tail ending in a corneous tip, 

 and about one-eighth of the total length. Abdominal scales occasionally divided. 



Color. Large irregularly ovate chesnut-colored spots, bordered with black, and varying in 

 number from thirty to fifty, are distributed along the whole upper surface of the body and 

 tail. These spots are often minutely punctate with red ; and the spots tliemselves are so dis- 

 posed, that when viewed from above at a short distance, the body might be said to be annulate 

 with white. On the flanks are similar smaller chesnut spots, alternating with those above. 

 On the summit of the head is often seen a reddish semicircular band, extending from one eye 

 to the other ; and a large irregular reddish spot on the occiput, lighter in the centre, margined 

 with black. The colors are very vivid at certain seasons, but change almost instantaneously 

 after death ; the large deep chesnut blotches becoming greyish, and the abdomen almost 

 white. Beneath light pink when alive, passing into pearl grey, with many irregular quadrate 

 dark spots. 



