SERPENTS OF NORTHEASTERN UNITED STATES 359 



Stejneger, Leonhard. '95. Poisonous snakes of North America. U. S. nat. 



mus. Rep't. 1893. p. 337-487, pi. 1-19. 



1901. Eckel's Snakes of New York. Am. nat. 35 : 428. 



* Storer, D. H. '39. Reports on the fishes, reptiles and birds of Massachusetts. 



Bost. p. 221-34. 

 '* Thompson, Zadock. '42. [Serpents of Vermont] History of Vermont, natu- 

 ral, civil and statistical, by Zadock Thompson, p. 115-19. 

 *Verrill, A. E. '65. Catalogue of the reptiles and batrachians found in the 



vicinity of Norway, Oxford co. Maine. Bost. soc. nat. hist. Proc. ix : 195-99. 

 '69. [Note on occurrence in Connecticut and Massachusetts of Ancis- 



trodon contortrix] Bost. soc. nat. hist. Proc. xii : 249. 

 Wallace, W. S. 1901. Snakes of Rockland co., N. Y. Trans. Linn. soc. 



N. Y. 



Placed at my disposal, in manuscript form, by the author, and as yet unpublished. 



CLASSIFICATION AND NOMENCLATURE 



The paper here presented is designed for general use, and is 

 issued as a guide to our local species of serpents, with a view to 

 obtaining farther data concerning the occurrence, frequency and 

 variations of these species in different parts of the area under con- 

 sideration. In order to popularize the subject as far as possible, 

 certain changes from the usual form of presentation have been 

 adopted. 



In giving the specific descriptions, synonymic lists have been 

 omitted, and the scientific names under which each species is 

 described by De Kay ('42) and Jordan ('99) respectively have 

 been added. In addition to an artificial generic key of the com- 

 mon type, based on structural characters of more or less moment, 

 a highly artificial key to the species, based so far as possible on 

 tint and pattern of coloration, has been devised ; which will be 

 of service in determinations of living specimens. 



Prof. Cope's grouping and terminology, as fully developed in his 

 last work (Cope. 1900) on North American serpents, have been 

 strictly adhered to. This close following of what will undoubtedly 

 he for many years the standard general work on the subject, seemed 

 desirable in a paper such as the present, purely preliminary in its 

 nature, though the author's views on several of the forms treated 

 are widely at variance with those advanced by Prof. Cope. 



To the scientific name of each species, has been added that one 

 of its common names which seems to be in most general use, or 



