COLUBER PUNCTATUS. 117 



Gleanings of Natural History, by George Edwards,* where may be seen an excel- 

 lent plate of it. He says it was sent to him by his friend Bartram, from Pennsyl- 

 vania; that "its upper side, except a white ring round the neck, is of shining jet 

 black; the belly, or under part, is of a fine light red, and the eyes flame colour." 

 A second specimen was also sent him, the "upper side of which was chestnut 

 colour, and the under side deep yellow."t 



Linnseus next gave the characters very distinctly of this animal from a specimen 

 furnished him by Dr. Garden. Other naturalists only copied him, till Bosc 

 observed it in Carolina, and communicated a very full description of it to Latreille, 

 which was afterwards copied by Daudin. 



Merrem, from the plate to which he refers in Edwards being without the three 

 longitudinal rows of dark spots that Linnaeus gives as one of the distinctive marks 

 of his animal, as well as from its having a collar or ring, not mentioned in Linnseus, 

 thought it a new species, and called it after Edwards. Yet there is no doubt that 

 the Natrix punctatus and the Natrix edwardii of Merrem are one and the same 

 animal. Indeed I have more than once seen individuals of this species without 

 the rings at the neck, and as frequently without the spots; and Say has seen the 

 central row double. 



* Gleanings of Natural History, vol. iii. p. 289. 

 f Gleanings of Natural History, vol. iii. p. 290. 



