124 COLUBER ELAPSOIDES. 



the abdomen to near the tail, when it suddenly decreases in size to terminate in 

 a small acuminate tip. 



Colour. The head is black, with a small spot on each frontal plate; a white 

 band begins at the occiput and descends to the throat, becoming broader in its 

 descent. The ground of the colour of the body is a beautiful red, surrounded by 

 eighteen jet black rings; in the centre of each of these is a narrow white ring. 

 The borders of all these rings are very distinct and entire. 



Dimensions. Length of head, 5 hnes; length of body, 9 inches; length of tail, 

 If inches; total length, 11 inches 2 lines. The individual here described had one 

 hundred and seventy abdominal plates, and thirty-eight subcaudal scales. 



Habits. This animal is not common; I have met with but few of them, conse- 

 quently know little of its habits. It is a beautiful and harmless little snake. 



Geographical Distribution. As yet I can only give South Carolina and 

 Georgia as the habitat of the Coluber elapsoides. 



General Remarks. It is more than probable that Bosc had this animal in 

 view when describing his "Couleuvre ecarlate,"* (Coluber coccineus,) for his 

 description agrees perfectly well: "body vermilion, with transverse bands of yel- 

 lowish-white between black bands;" and, besides this, his figure of it corresponds 

 to the one here given, in shape, size, and disposition of the colours. But there is 

 still some confusion, for prior to this he had sent "the animal, accompanied by a 

 description and drawing," to Latreille, who published them both in his Histoire 

 Naturelle des Reptiles, in which he says of it, "the snout is obtuse and somewhat 

 of the horse-shoe shape; under part of the body uniform white." Yet in Bosc's 

 description, quoted above, the rings are represented encircling the body, as in the 

 Elaps fulvius, with which the animal seems to have been confounded, but from 



* Med. and Phys. Res., p. 127. 



