REPTILES OF MASSACHUSETTS. 229 



tapering posterior to the vent ; of an uniform dark brown color 

 above ; reddish upon the sides ; abdomen yellowish white, 

 mottled with dark brown ; beneath the tail, nearly black. 

 Whole upper part of the body covered with rows of elongated, 

 strongly carinated scales ; these carinas, more obvious upon the 

 posterior extremity ; nothing peculiar in the arrangement of the 

 plates upon the head ; the ten plates upon the top of the head, 

 of moderate size ; sixteen plates upon the upper jaw ; eighteen 

 plates upon the lower jaw. Eyes prominent. Nostrils of mod- 

 erate size. 



The abdominal plates are 139 ; caudal scales 72. 



In a young individual lying before me, seventeen inches in 

 length, with the same number of abdominal plates and caudal 

 scales with the above described specimen, the back is crossed 

 transversely by a large number of yellow bands, and the scales 

 on the tail are so strongly keeled, as to produce well marked 

 grooves between the rows of scales. 



This species feeds upon frogs. 



C saurita. Lin. The riband Snake. 



Shaw's Gen. Zoology, vol. iii. pt. 2. p. 532. 

 Harlan's Med, and Phys. Res. p. 115. 



This beautiful little snake is not very common ; it resem- 

 bles somewhat the sirtalis, but it is smaller, lighter colored, 

 and much more graceful in its figure and proportions. Its 

 form is very slender, tapering to an acute point. Above, dark 

 brown, with three longitudinal stripes of a greenish white 

 color, which are very distinct as far as the vent, back of which 

 they are insensibly effaced ; both sides of the dorsal line, and 

 the upper edge of the lateral lines, margined with black. 

 Whole length of the specimen before me, ten inches ; length of 

 the tail, three and a half inches. The scales upon the top of 

 the head are moderate in size ; fourteen upon the upper jaw, 

 twenty upon the lower jaw. Eyes rather large. 



The abdominal plates are 162 ; caudal scales 112. 



