SYNOPSES AND DESCRIPTIONS, 81 
STORERIA DEKAYI pl. J, fig. 1. 
Tropiponotus DEKAYI Lolbrook, 1842, N. A. Herp. IV, 53, pl. XIV. 
SroreriA DEKAYI Baird & Girard, 1853, Cat. Serp., 139. 
Small. Body elongate fusiform, belly broad, rounded; head distinct, 
depressed, rounded behind, narrow and angular in front; tail short, about 
one fifth of the total, tapering gradually, slender near the extremity. Eye 
moderate, pupil round. Snout prominent. Rostral broader than high. 
Head-shields normal. Frontal short, broad. Nostril in hinder edge of 
anterior portion of the nasal. No loreal. One anteorbital. Postorbitals 
two, sometimes fused. One temporal in contact with the orbitals. Labials 
7, eye over the third and fourth. Infralabials 7, fourth and fifth large. 
Submentals two pairs, subequal. An elongate shield behind the fifth and 
sixth infralabials. Scales keeled, slightly notched at the end, in 17 rows, 
dorsal narrow, outer very broad. Ventrals 120—138. Anal bifid. Sub- 
raudals 40—60, 
Light brownish olive, ashy to reddish, with two series of small black 
spots, about four scales apart, along the middle of the back. The spots 
are irregularly placed, and often united across the intervening space, form- 
ing short transverse bands of about seven scales in width. The spaces 
between these spots is lighter than the flanks, and separated from them by 
a dark line connecting the outer edges of the blotches. In the first pair 
the spots are larger, and extend from the occiput down the back of the 
head around the angles of the jaws. Head darker, a dark band across the 
occipitals to the hinder labial, sometimes broken on the sides. A vertical 
band of black under the eye. Often there is a second series of indistinct 
spots on the flank below the dorsal vitta, alternating with the vertebral 
series. Belly uniform, or with irregularly placed dots of black near the 
sides. Chin and throat more yellow. Spots sometimes obsolete. Maine 
to Mexico. 
A specimen from Jalapa, Mexico, has 145 ventrals, a bifid anal, and 
44 pairs of subcaudals. It is only by a close examination that it can 
be distinguished from Massachusetts specimens. 
STORERIA COPEL. 
Avetopmis copet Cope, 1879, Pr. Am. Phil. Soc., p. 265 ( Duges MSS.) 
Head little larger than neck; tail pointed, near one fifth of the total. 
Rostral not produced, projecting very slightly above the level of the muz- 
zie. Internasals small, triangular. Frontal longer than wide, hexangu- 
