Reptiles of Massachusetts. 2T 
of moderate size; pupils black, irides grayish. A 
broad yellowish white band crosses the occiput. Tail, 
three inches in length, tapering to a point. The 
abdominal plates are 156, and the caudal scales 56. 
A second specimen exhibits 156 plates, and 62 
scales. 
C. constrictor. Lin. The common black Snake. 
Shaw’s Gen. Zoology, vol. iii. pt. 2. p. 464. 
Harlan’s Med. and Phys. Res. p. 112. 
In some parts of the State, this is not an uncom- 
mon species, frequently growing to the length of six 
E A fine specimen, fifty-one inches in length, 
serves for the following description: Length of the 
head, one and a half inches; greatest width of the 
head, half an inch. Body, above, almost black; 
beneath, slate-colored ; neck, margin of the jaws, 
and snout, yellow. Plates upon the top of the head, 
very large ; that at the snout, convex, projecting, 
yellow, bordered with black at its upper and lateral 
margins; the first pair of plates, nearly quadrangu- 
* 
lar; the second, pentagonal; of the three between 
the eyes, the middle, which is largest, is hexagonal ; 
. plates, two pairs of smaller plates 
anterior to th minal plates. The whole back 
ps Ta 
a we ; 
