116 COLUBER PUNCTATUS. 



The upper jaw is covered with eight large square plates, increasing in size to the 

 angle of the mouth; two of these ascend to form the inferior wall of the orbit. 

 There are two posterior orbital plates, the superior of which is the longer, and 

 only one anterior orbital. The nostrils are lateral and near the snout. The eyes 

 are large; the pupil dark, the iris gray. The neck is rather smaller than the 

 head. The body is elongated, cylindrical, rounded above, and covered with 

 smooth scales; the abdomen is flattened, and covered with plates. The tail is 

 delicate and pointed. 



Colour. The head is of a bluish-black colour, with' a transverse blotch of 

 yellowish-white on each side of the occiput, uniting to form a ring; the lips are 

 white. The upper surface of the body is the same colour as the head, but this 

 varies a good deal — sometimes almost black, at others approaching a chestnut- 

 brown, finely dotted with gray. The abdomen is reddish-yellow, with three 

 parallel rows of dark spots of subtriangular form, with their apices turned forward, 

 one row of which runs in the mesial line. The tail is of similar colour with the 

 body, both above and below, but wants the subtriangular spots. 



Dimensions. Length of head, 5 lines; length of body, 6^ inches; length of 

 tail, 2 inches; circumference of body, 9 lines. In the individual here described 

 there were one hundred and thirty-two abdominal plates and forty-nine subcaudal 

 scales. 



Habits. The Coluber punctatus is a very timid animal, living great part of 

 the time concealed under the bark of trees or old logs and stones. It emerges 

 from its hiding place towards the dusk of evening, or after rain, when the insects 

 have been washed from their hiding places. 



Geographical Distribution. This animal inhabits the Atlantic states from 

 Maine to Florida inclusive. 



General Remarks. The first notice of this animal is to be found in the 



