New York State Museum 



SERPENTS OF NORTHEASTERN UNITED STATES 



Bl EDWIN < . ECKEL 



IMKODltTION 



The following catalogue was commenced with the intention of 

 including only such species of serpen teas have been found within 

 the limits of New York Btate, together with such other spa 

 couhl, from occurrences in adjoining Btates, be reasonably expected 

 to occnr here. A preliminary check list, prepared on that basis by 

 the author, and published recently in the Arm rican naturalist^ con- 

 tained 25 species and subspecies. This list was notably imperf* 

 of which fact no one was more conscious than its author; but it 

 was the first attempt to formulate such a catalogue since Baird's list 

 of 1S5±. 



De Kay, in 1S42, described 15 species of snake- as occurring in 

 this state. To this list Gebhard added a sixteenth (Storeria 

 occipito m ac u 1 a t a) in 1851, and a seventeenth (S is I rums 

 catena tus eaten at us) in 1S53. The present li>t names 19 

 species as inhabitants of New York state, one of these species how- 

 ever being represented by six subspecies. One additional spec 

 (Coluber v ul pin u s) is added because of a single occurrence in 

 Massachusetts; while the three remaining species have been found 

 in Pennsylvania or New Jersey, but not in Xew York. 



The total number of species and subspecies here described is 28, 

 and the catalogue, as now issued, includes every species and sub- 

 species authentically recorded from that portion of the United 

 State- lying north of Maryland and east of Ohio. Two additions 

 may have to he made to this list in the near future. It i- probable 

 that some more southern representative of ( > s c e o 1 a doliata 

 than o.d. triangula will be found to occur in New Jersey or 

 Pennsylvania; while there is a possibility that some of the Ohio 

 specimens (from Lake Erie) identified as Natrix fascia t a 

 ery t hr ogaster may really prove to be of that subspecies. 



As noted later in this bulletin, I am greatly indebted to "Messrs 

 II. I>. Reed of Cornell university, and W. Seward Wallace of New 

 York, lor hitherto unpublished data which they have placed at 



