696 REPTILES — COLUBRID^. 



Habitat, MassaoliiisettB ?, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, 

 North Carolina, South Carolina, Mississippi, Lonisiana, Texas, New Mexico, Arkansas, 

 Ohio, Illinois, Missouri, " California, Michigan, West Indies." 



A single specimen of this beautiful little serpent was sent to me by 

 Prof. Tuttle, of the Ohio State University. It was captured at Ironton, 

 Lawrence county, and is likely to be confounded with the preceding 

 species, from which its seventeen rows of carinated scales at once dis- 

 tinguish it. Prof. Cope found that in confinement " instead of climbing 

 over caladia, ferns, etc., it lived mostly under ground. It had a curious 

 habit of projecting its head, and two or three inches of its body above 

 the ground, and holding them for hours rigidly in a fixed attitude." In 

 this position its resemblance to a small sprout or plant might easily 

 lead to its being mistaken for such, or overlooked by other animals. 



Genus DIADOPHIS. Baird and Girard. 



Body slender, elongated ; head rather short and broad ; teeth equal, smooth ; cephalic 

 plates normal ; postfroiitals and prefrontals each a pair ; loral present ; nasals two f 

 postorbitals two ; labials and inframaxillaries rather small ; ocoipitals of fair size ; rostral 

 comparatively small, not projecting ; dorsal scales in 15-17 rows ; gastrosteges, 142-240 ; 

 nrosteges, 35-60 ; anal plate bifid ; occipital region generally with a yellowish-ring. 



Dorsal scales in 15 rows. . . . . . D. punctatus. 



Dorsal scales in 17 rows ; abdomen spotted and mottled with black ; extralimital. 



D. AENYI. 

 DiADOPHIS PUNCTATUS LiunEBUS. 



Riug'-necked Snake. 



Coluber punctatus, Linn^us, Gmelin, Haulan, Kirtland, Stoebk, HOlbrook, DeKat. 



Coluber torguatus, Shaw. 



Natrix edwardeii, et punctatus, Mkrrbm. 



Somahsoma punctatam, WAGLfts. 



Spiletes punctatus, Swainson. 



Calamaria punctata, Schlegel. 



Ablabes punctatus Dumebil and Bibron, Gtjnther, Halloweix, 



Diadophis punctatus, Baird and Girard, Cope, Vbrrull, Allen, Jordak. 



General color above bluish to brownish-black, without spots; a yellow transverse 

 band in the occipital region, sometimes this ring is replaced by yellow spots transversely 

 arranged ; beneath orange colored to whitish, either uniform or with a medial row of 

 spots ; labial region yellowish- white ; vertical plate nearly triangular, not as long as 

 commissural line of oocipitals ; upper labials, 8, lower, 9 ; ocoipitals long and not trun- 

 cate behind ; inframaxillaries reaching to sixth lower labial ; eye above the fourth and 

 fifth upper labials ; dorsal scales in 15 rows ; gastrosteges, 148-163 ; urosteges, 35-56. 

 Length, 15 inches ; head, 6 lines ; tail, 3 inches ; transverse diameter of head, 3^ lines; 

 of neck, 2f lines; circumference of body 1 inch. 



