186 Expedition to the 



This morning three Omawhaws were fired upon by a war 

 party of five Ioway Indians, and two were wounded ; this oc- 

 curred on the east side of the river, nearly opposite to our 

 cantonment. When they fired, each one called out his name 



black: beneath yelliw, rather paler behind; inferior jaw beneath while to 

 the origin of the plates; head with nine plates above, two longitudinal 

 series, of about four large scales each, intervening on each side between 

 the two posterior plates aad the three posterior supermaxillary plates; 

 intermaxillary plate somewhat heptagonal, dilated, emarginate at the 

 mouth, superior angle obtusely pointedf eye black brown, pupil deep black, 

 surrounded by a whitish iiae, posterior canthus with two plates. 



Plates 176 scales 84 

 174 



Total length ". 3 ft. 4 1-2 in. 



Tail ........ 8 5-8 



Head to the tip of the maxillary bones . . 13-20 



Another specimen plates 130 scales 91 



Total length .... 3 ft. 11 3-8 in. 



Tail . . . . . 111-2 



Three specimens were found. The inferior surface of one was im- 

 maculate, but that of the smaller one had on each side of the plates an 

 obsolete double series of reddish brown spots, irregularly alternate, ou 

 each side; these were so indistinct as not to be noticed at the first glancs 

 of the eye. The tip of the tail in this last is deficient. 



2 Coluber parietalis. Above blackish with three yellowish fillets and 

 about eighty red concealed spots; beneath bluish, a series of black dots 

 each side. 



Description. Body above black-brown, a vertebral greenish yellow 

 vitta, and a lateral pale yellow one, beneath which is a fuliginous shade: 

 betweeu the dorsal and lateral vitta are about eighty concealed red spots 

 or semifascias, formed upon the skin and lateral margins of the scales, ob- 

 solete towards the cloaca, at which the series terminates; scales elongated, 

 all carinate, and slightly reflexed at the lateral edges; head dark olive, 

 beneath white, parietal plates with a double white spot at the middle of 

 the suture; intermaxillary plate subhexagonal, emarginate at the mouth, 

 and at tip hardly angulated, almost rounded in that part, transverse diame- 

 ter nearly double the longitudinal; superior maxillary plates white, inter- 

 mediate sutures blackish; eye yellowish, pupil black, posterior canthus 

 two scaled; beneath bluish green, a longitudinal series of black dots each 

 side at the base of the scuta, terminating at the cloaca. 

 Plates 165 scales 88 



Total length . . . 1ft. 3 3- 10 in. 



Tail .... 49-10 



This is a common serpent in this section of country. In order to ren- 

 der the lateral red spots very apparent, it is necessary to dilate the skin, 

 when they exhibit a very striking character, being of a Vermillion red. 

 It varies in having the lateral series of red spots alternating with a series 

 of smaller red spots nearer to the dorsal line. 



In common with ordinalus it has a double common white spot on the 

 parietal plates, and a series of black spots on each side of the inferior sur- 

 face of the body; but in addition to the proportions of plates and scales 



