1893.] The Color Variations of the Milk Snake. 1069 
transversely. They extend to within two or three scales of 
the gastrosteges, while in the form triangulus they are five 
scales distant. The alternate spots touch the gastrosteges. 
This figure is taken from a specimen in the Museum of the 
Philadelphia Academy from southern Illinois. 
In fig. 3 we have an individual from Elmira, Illinois, which 
illustrates the characters of the form collaris. Here the chev- 
rons are distinct from the first dorsal spot, whose anterior 
black border forms a half collar on the neck. This specimen 
is instructive, as it displays the last connection between the 
chevron and the first spot, in a black line on each side. "This 
is wanting in the typical form. 
The collar of ground coloris complete in its anterior border 
as well as the posterior in the form temporalis (fig. 4), owing to 
the disappearance of the chevron. The transverse band on 
the prefrontals has also disappeared. The anterior extremity 
of the postorbital stripe is cut off, and consists of a spot of 
ground color. The dorsal saddle spots are’wider, reaching the 
gastrosteges, while the intermediate spots are exclusively gas- 
trostegal. The spots which alternate with them, have fused 
on the middle line. Fig. 4 is from a specimen from the State 
of Delaware. : 
. In subspecies doliatus the postocular stripe has disappeared, 
and the chevron is replaced by a black patch on the parietal 
and temporal plates. In other respects this form is more like 
the form collaris. The dorsal saddle spots are separated by a 
row or two of scales from the gastrosteges, and their alternat- 
ing spots are partly on the scales. The ground color in this 
form, as in the temporalis, approaches red. Thisis the form of 
the tier of states between latitude 40° and the Gulf States. 
— The subspecies syspilus is represented in fig. 7. The head 
pattern is like that of doliatus with the black patch more or less 
reduced—in the specimen figured being represented by a cross 
stripe. The dorsal saddle spots are more expanded than in 
any form yet encountered, their lateral borders being com- 
pleted below the scales and entirely on the gastrosteges. The 
alternate spots now meet and fuse on the middle line of the 
abdomen, and the second series of alternating spots has dis- 
