89 



COLUBER QUADRIVITTATUS.— flo/irooA:. 



Plate XX. 



Characters. Body very long, above greenish clay-colour, with four longitu- 

 dinal brown bands; beneath yellowish; head distinct; scales on the back carinated, 

 on the flanks smooth; tail one-fifth of total length. PL 233. Sc. 90. 



Synonyme. Chicken Snake, Bartram, Travels in Florida, &c., p. 875. 



Description. The head is elongated and oval, with the vertical plate penta- 

 gonal, short and broad; the superior orbital plates are large; the frontal large, 

 irregularly pentagonal, broadest internally, and extending externally between the 

 anterior orbital and posterior nasal to the loral plate, which is of trapezoid form, 

 and small. The anterior frontal are small and rhomboidal in shape; the two nasal 

 are also large and somewhat trapezoidal, the one lunate before and the other 

 behind for the nostrils; the rostral above is triangular, rounded in front and 

 broad; the posterior orbital are two in number; the anterior orbital is single, 

 veiy large and sub-quadrilateral; the inferior wall of the orbit is completed by 

 the fourth and fifth superior labial plates, of which there are eight. 



The nostrils are large, lateral near the snout, and open a little backwards. 

 The eyes are large, the pupil dusky, and the iris greyish-yellow. The neck is 

 contracted and covered with smaller scales. 



The body is elongated, fusiform, and covered above with hexagonal scales; the 

 superior rows carinated, the inferior smooth. The tail is moderately long and 

 round. 



Vol. III.— 12 



