282 BULLETIN UNITED STATES GEOLOGICAL SURVEY. 



of Water Adder, or Water Moccasin : needless to say, like other true 

 Coluhrines, they are perfectly harmless. Those of the other section, 

 Eegina, are slenderer, and banded lengthwise, much like Eutcenia. 



PiTYOPHIS SAYI BELLONA. (J5. & G.) Cope. 



Say^s Pine Snalce. 



a. SAYI. 



Coluber sayi, Schl. Ess. Physiogn. Serp. 1837, 157. (Not Coronella sayi of Holbrook or 



Coluber sayi of DelCay, which is Ojahibolus.) 

 Fituojghia sayi, Bd. & GiR. App. Cat. N. A. Eept. 1853, 152 (in text under Coluber 



sayi, p. 151). — Kenn. apud Coop. & Suckl. Nat. Hist. Wash. Terr. 1860, 300, 



pi. 22.— Hayd. Trans. Amer. Phil. Soc. xii. 1862, 177. 



b. BELLONA. 



Cliurchillia bellona, Bd. & GiR. Stansbury's Rep. Great Salt Lake, 1852, 350. 



FituopMs bellona, Bd. & GiR. Cat. N. Am. Rept. 1853, 66, 157. 



PHyojpMs bellona, Kenn. apud Bd. P. R. E. Rep. x. 1859, Williamson's Route, Rep- 

 tiles, 42.— Kenn. ajmd Bd. U. S. Mex. B. Surv. ii. pt. ii. 1859, Reptiles, 18. — 

 Bd. U. S. p. R. R. Rep. x. 1859, Beckwith's Route, Reptiles, 19.— Cope, Proc. 

 Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila. 1866, 305.— Allen, Proc. Bost. Soc. Nat. Hist. xvii. 1874, 69. 



PityopMs sayi var. bellona. Cope, Check List Bat. and Rep. N. A. 1875, 39. 



FituopMs affinis. Hallow, Proc. Acad. Nat. Sci. Phila. vi. 1852, 181. — Hallow. Sitgr. 

 Rep. Expl. Zuni and Colorado R. 1853, 130, 146. 



The species of this gecus, known as " Pine " and " Bull" Snakes, are 

 of large size, sometimes attaining a length of six feet or more. They 

 are perfectly harmless, and appear of a rather sluggish and inoffensive 

 disposition. They are light-colored (whitish, yellowish, or even reddish), 

 but thickly blotched above with a dorsal series of numerous large brown 

 or brown black-bordered spots, and other smaller lateral ones 5 on each 

 side of the belly is usually found (as in the case of the present species) 

 a row of black spots, one on each scutellum. Several upper dorsal series 

 are lightly carinated; the rest are smooth. The tail is very short, about 

 one-twelfth of the whole length, half-ringed above with black, and hav- 

 ing lateral black spots. There is a dark stripe across the head from one 

 eye to the other, continued behind each eye to the angle of the mouth. 

 The head is very small, and the neck contracted. The general blotched 

 character of the upper parts is somewhat in superficial appearance like 

 that of Crotalus confluentus or Heterodon nasicus ; but very little further 

 observation is required to recognize the decided distinctions. 



The best known species of this genus is the P. melanoleuca^ the Com- 

 mon Pine or Bull Snake of the Eastern United States. An excellent 

 and interesting account of the habits of this species, by the Eev. S. 

 Lock wood, will be found in the American Naturalist for January, 1875. 



Serpents of this genus vary notably in the construction of the plates 

 of the head. A specimen of P. hellona^ from the Yellowstone, collected 

 by Mr. Allen in the expedition of 1873, presents the following case: — A 



