72 SYNOPSES AND DESCRIPTIONS. 



edged ; the dorsal is three and two half scales wide, and is also black-edged. 

 The brown is paler on top of the head, and the ground color is a narrow 

 yellow band to the eye. Lips yellow, like the lower surfaces, unspotted." 

 Orizaba^ Vera Cruz. 



DlADOPHIS PtlNCTATTTS, fl. II, ficj. 2. 



Coluber punctatus Linne, 1766, Syst. Nat, ed. XII, I, 376: 

 Diadophis punctatus Baird & Girard, 1853, Cat: N: A. Serp:, 112. 



Body slender, subcylindrical, slightly depressed ; head distinct from the 

 neck, depressed, crown flat; tail near one fifth of the total, tapering to a 

 point. Crown-shields normal, broad, anterior short. Rostral broad, low, 

 hot reaching back on the head. Snout prominent, rounded. Frontal pen- 

 tagonal. Na!sal divided, nostril mainly in the anterior portion. Loreal 

 nearly square. Oculars 2 — 2. Temporals 14-1. Labials seven, sixth 

 largest, third and fourth in orbit, or labials eight, seventh larger, fourth 

 and fifth in orbit. Infralabials eight, fifth very large. Posterior sub- 

 mentals half as large as the anterior. Eye moderate, pupil round. 

 Mouth-cleft deep, more than half behind the eye. Scales smooth, in 15 

 rows, dorsal narrow, outer as broad as long. Ventrals 148 — 160. Anal 

 bifid. Subcaudals 36—56 pairs. 



Uniform bronzed, ashy or greenish brown above, with a narrow yel- 

 lowish, dark-edged band across the occiput (sometimes obsolete). Hinder 

 edge of the extremities of the ventrals with a black spot, giving the appear- 

 ance of a zigzag line. Belly yellow or orange, purplish or reddish, uni- 

 form or with black spots, irregularly scattered or in a central longitudinal 

 series. Chin yellow to upper margins of the upper labials, which, with 

 that of the rostral, are black. New England to Mississippi. 



var. aenyi. 



Diadophis- arnyi Kennicott, 1859, Pr. Ac. N. Sc, Phil, 99. 



Abdomen more spotted with black, ventrals 160. Subcaudals 50 pairs. 

 Kansas. 



var. docilis. 



Baird & Girard, 1853, Cat. N. A. Serp., 114. 



Body above uniform ash-gray; yellowish white beneath, spotted with 

 black. A proportionally broad yellowish white occipital ring, margined 



