BLUE RACEE OR BLACK SNAKE. 693 



Genus BASCANION. Baird and Girard. 

 Body elongated, attaining a length of five or six feet; head elongated, passing 

 gradually into the neck ; vertical plate elongated ; snperoiliaries wide ; oooipitals 

 large; postfrontals moderately large; postorbitals two ; anteorbitals two ; loral large; 

 nasals two ; labials large ; inframaxillaries well developed ; mouth deeply cleft ; dorsal 

 scales in 17, rarely 19 rows, all smooth; gastrosteges, 170-210; urosteges, 80-110; anal 

 plate bifid ; color above black, olive, or blue. 



Bascanion C0N8TEICT0K Linnseus. 



Blue Racer or Black Snake. 



Coluber constrictor, liuvarnvs, GutBtiN, Harlan, Schlegbl, Storbr, Holbrook, 



Thompson, Kirtiand, DbKat. 

 Sierophis constrietor, Bonaparte. 



Coryphodon constrictor, Ddmbril and Bibron, Gonthbr. 

 Bascanion constrictor, Baird and Girard, Allen, Cope, Jordan. 

 ? Bascanion foxii, Baird and Girard. 

 t Coluber flaviventris, Say, Harlan, Holbrook. 

 ? Bascanion flaviventris, Baird and Girard. 



General color above in our specimens, varying from uniform azure blue to blue-black ; 

 below greenish-blue; gular region, lower jaw, labial, and rostral region of upper jaw 

 whitish ; a light line passing from the rostral just above the loral and eye, to the 

 anterior edge of the superciliaries ; vertical plate pentagonal, with irregular sides, 

 broadest anteriorly, in length about equal to commissural line of occipitals ; upper 



CoLDBEK vuLPiNus Baiid and Girard. 



Fox Snake. 



Scotophis vulpinus, Baird and Girard. 

 Coluber vulpinus. Cope. 

 Mlaphis spiloides, Dumbril and Bibron. 

 Coluber spiloides, Gunther. 



General color above light-brown, with a vertebral and two lateral rows of chocolate 

 colored blotches, the vertebral very large, covering from five to nine scales in length and 

 about twelve in width, the lateral much smaller, about three scales in length and from 

 three to five in width ; these blotches extending upon the tail, but smaller; head light- 

 brown to yellow ; abdomen with four series of approximately quadrilateral black blotches ; 

 vertical plate nearly an equilateral triangle ; occipitals large, rounded behind ; upper 

 labials, 8, the sixth and seventh largest, lower, 11, the fifth much the largest ; infra- 

 maxillaries reaching to the sixth lower labial ; dorsal scales in 25 rows ; gastrosteges, 

 300-310 ; urosteges, 65-70 ; tail large at base. Length, 5 feet ; head, If inches ; tail, 9f 

 inches ; transverse diameter of head, 1^^ inches ; of neck, 10 lines ; circumference of 

 body, 5 inches. 



Habitat. Massachusetts, New York, Michigan, Wisconsin, Illinois, Kansas, Minnesota. 



Although this species has not yet, so far as I know, been observed in Ohio, its 

 range is such as to render its occurrence in the northern part of the State very probable. 



