148 OPHIDIA. 



Obsert. — The body is stoutish in certain species and slender in 

 others, capable of being somewhat depressed or flattened in water, 

 into which they occasionally enter, though most of the species are 

 terrestrial; many of them being ovo-viviparous. The skin is very ex- 

 tensible. 



The genus, which includes the so-called garter and striped snakes, 

 seems to be peculiar to North America, and the analogue of the Tropi- 

 donoti of the ancient world. 



1. EUTAENIA INFERNALIS, B. & G. 



(Plate XIV, figs. 11-16.) 



Char. spec. — Corpore gracilissimo. Gapite et omio magnis, Scuto 

 praeorhUali tmo ; postorhitalihus tribus, inaequalibus. Squamis 

 dorsuaUbus in novemdecim series longitudinales dispositis ; omnibus 

 conspicue carinatis. Supra nigro colore ; serie Jlavo-ruhescentium 

 macularum cum ohsoleta vitta laterali, ipsaque vitta cum palleo-viri' 

 descente colore laterum et abdominis, confluentibus. 



Spec. Char. — Body very slender. Head and eye large. One ante- 

 orbital ; three unequal postorbitals. Nineteen dorsal rows of scales, 

 all conspicuously carinated. Above black : a series of reddish- 

 yellow spots, confluent with the indistinct lateral stripe, itself con- 

 fluent with the greenish-white of the sides and abdomen. 



SYJU.^Coluher infernalis, Blainv. Nouv. Ann. Mus. d'hisb. nat. Ill, 1834, 59, PI. 

 XXVI, figs. 3 & S a. 



JEutaenia infernalis, B. & G. Catal. N. Amer. Kept. I, 1853, 26. 



Descr. — 'One single specimen of this species was collected. It is 

 about fourteen inches in total length and very slender. The eye is 

 very large. The anteorbital plate preserves its width downwards, its 

 anterior margin being subrounded or subconvex. The postorbitals, 

 three in number, are unequal in their development : the lowermost 

 being quite small and the middle one considerably the largest. The 

 loral is well developed, subquadrangular, or trapezoid. The post- 

 nasal is smaller than the prenasal, in the posterior margin of which 

 the nostril exclusively opens. The rostral is large, six-sided, though 



