SYNOPSES AND DESCRIPTIONS. 121 
Light reddish-brown, lighter below, with fifteen to twenty inverted Y- 
shaped darker spots, which vary in position from opposite to alternate, 
on each flank. About twice as many dark spots appear on each edge of 
the abdomen, sometimes spreading and confluent. All the scales are pune- 
tulate with brown. Head brighter, more copper-colored, sides with a band 
of cream color, bordered by a narrow line of light, inclosed by another of 
dark, passing from the upper postorbital above the labials around the angle 
of the mouth, and forward through the middles of the infralabials. A small 
round, light-edged spot of dark brown near the inner edge of each parietal. 
Tail darker. Terrestrial. 
Anctstropon pisctvorus. (Moccasin.) Pl. VII, fig. 2. 
Croratus piscivorus Lacépede, 1789, Hist. Serp. IT, pn. 130 and 424. 
ANCISTRODON Piscivorus Cope, 1859, Pr. Ac. N. Se., Phil., 336 (name). 
Body stout, fusiform, belly broad, back slightly compressed; head distinct, 
subtriangular, broad behind, crown flat; tail short, pointed. Head-shields 
nine. Occipitals more or less broken posteriorly. Rostral broad to the 
upper extremity. Nasal in two parts, subequal. No loreal. Anteorbitals 
three, upper large, middle smali, not reaching the nasal, lower very small. 
Postorbitals four (3—5.) Supralabials eight (7—9), third larger, reaching 
the orbit, first and last small. Infralabials ten (LO—11.) Submentals one 
pair large, followed by two pairs of small. Scales in 25 rows, outer 
faintly keeled. Ventrals 136 to 145. Subcaudals 42 to 54, some of the 
posterior bifid. 
Brown, reddish or olive. Eleven to fifteen more or less irregular and 
badly defined vertical bars or pairs of bars of dark brown, with lighter 
centers, on each flank. Tail dark brown or banded. Brownish- yellow 
beneath, with blotches of dark, which sometimes spread over the entire 
abdominal surface. Head uniform above, light-colored specimens showing 
a small round spot of dark near the inner edge of each parietal. A yellow- 
edged, dark band as wide as the eye passes from the postorbitals above the 
angle of the mouth to the neck. Three similar bands on the infralabials of 
each side. The head-markings are sometimes obsolete. In the variety pug- 
nax from Texas the second labial is narrowed or crowded up. The total 
length of a large specimen is 44+ inches; tail 64 inches. Aquatic. South- 
ern States, from the Carolinas to Texas. 
