COUES AND YAEROW ON HERPETOLOGY. 281 



Tropidonotus tcenia, DeKay, N. Y. Fauna, iii. 1842, 43. 

 Tropidonotus Mpunotatus, Schl. Ess. Physiogn. Serp. 1837, 320. 

 Tropidonotus tcenia, DeICay, N. Y. Zool. 1842, 43, pt. 13, f. 27. 



&. PICKEEINai. 



Eutainia pickeringii, Bd. & GiR. Cat. N. A. Kept. 1853, 27 (Puget Sound). — GiR. U. S. 



Expl. Exped. Herpet. 1858, 150, pi. 13, f. 14-20.— Coop. «fe Suckl. Nat. Hist. 



Wash. Terr. 1860, 296. 

 Eutcmia sirtalis eubsp. pickeringii, Cope, Check List Bat. and Rep. N. A. 1875, 41. 



This species was not procured by Dr. Coues, but is introduced on the 

 strength of specimens from Fort Benton, Montana, collected by Lieu- 

 tenant Mullau. 



There are two well-marked forms of E. sirtalis subspecies picJceringi. 

 The spots confluent into a dark band. 

 a. With a lateral band. 

 h. No lateral band. 



Baird and Girard say of the species, — " Body slender j black above, 

 slate-color beneath ; lateral stripe irregular, confluent with the light- 

 colored intervals between the dark spots. This species exhibits great 

 variation of color, principally in regard to black of abdomen." In the 

 reserve collection of reptiles in the National Museum are quite a num- 

 ber of specimens of the two differently marked subspecies all from 

 one locality, viz, Fort Benton, Missouri, collected by Lieutenant MuUan 

 of the Army. In this subspecies, the differences in number of labials 

 may be frequently seen. 



Tropidonotus sipedon. (i.) 



Water Snake. 



Coluber sipedon, Linn. Syst. Nat. ed. 12, 1766, i. 379.— Gmel. Syst. Nat. ed. 13, 1788, 

 pt. iii. 1098.— Hakl. Journ. Phila. Acad. v. 1827, 351; Med. and Phys. Res. 

 114.— Thomps. Hist. Vermont, 1842, 118. 



Troyidonotus sipedon, Holbr. N. Am. Herpet. iii. 1842, 29, pi. 6. — DeKay, N. Y. Fauna, 

 iii. 1842, 42, pi. 14, f. 31.— Hayd. Trans. Amer. Phil. Soc. xii. 1862, 177. 



Nerodia sipedon, Bd. & Gir. Cat. N. Am. Reptiles, 1853, 38. 



Coluber poscilogaster, Maxim. Reise Nord-Amer. 1. 1839, 106. 



This serpent appears to have been first found in the Upper Missouri 

 region by the Prinz Maximilian von Neu Wied, who described it under 

 the name of Coluber pcecilogaster ; and it was subsequently observed in 

 the Yellowstone country by Dr. F. Y. Hayden. It is one of the com- 

 monest and best known species of the Eastern United States. The 

 serpent of this region, however, may not be typical sipedon, but rather 

 woodhousH or erythrogaster. Eeptiles of this genus (comprising Nerodia 

 SindBegina of Baird and Girard) are the most completely aquatic ones of 

 this country. The species of Nerodia proper are dark-colored, more or 

 less evidently blotched, stout and rather repulsive, quite pugnacious 

 when full grown, and commonly regarded as venomous under the name 



