1884. ] Function of the Epiglottis in the Buli-Snake. 19 
EXPLANATION OF PLATE I, 
Fic, 1.—Belostoma larva, to show the location of the pulsatile organs. In all three 
pairs of legs they are in the tibia, just below the articulation with the femur. 
Fic, 2,—Location of the pulsatile organ in the legs of Corixa. In this genus the 
chitinous cord, to which the pulsatile organ seems deca. is set in motion 
by its beating. The motion of this cord sometimes extends through three 
joints. 
Fic. 3.—Ranatra, adult, to show the exceptional position of the pulsatile organ in 
the fore legs. 
Fic. 4.—The pulsatile organ as seen in the tibia of an adult Ranatra. At the poste- 
rior end are seen the attachments extending upwards and backwards to the in- 
tegument of the legs. Crossing the anterior end and middle portion are the 
oblique muscular fibers of the legs. he trachez are plainly shown. The 
arrows indicate the direction of the blood currents, 
10: 
ON THE CHARACTER AND FUNCTION OF THE EPI- 
GLOTTIS IN THE BULL-SNAKE (PITYOPHIS). 
BY CHARLES A. WHITE, M.D 
MONG the more commonly known serpents of the United 
States there is a group of species which naturalists range 
under the generic name of Pityophis, and which are distributed 
from the Atlantic to the Pacific coast. To all these species the 
popular name of bull-snake is applied, and the more common 
eastern variety is also often popularly called the pine-snake. They 
are great, good-natured fellows, always getting out of man’s way 
when they can, but occasionally, if they are pressed, they will 
throw themselves into a somewhat threatening attitude and emit 
a peculiar hiss. The old naturalist, William Bartram, spoke of it 
as a “terrible hiss, resembling distant thunder,” but even with the 
popular dislike to serpents, I think few persons would regard the 
hiss of the bull-snake as at all terrible or thunderous. 
Baird and Girard, Cope. and Yarrow, have all published lists of 
Species of Pityophis. Baird and Girard enumerated seven spe- 
cies ; Cope, five species, dividing one of them into three varieties; 
and Yarrow four species, dividing one of them in two varieties. 
All these forms have similar habits, and all, at times, produce a 
similar hoarse, hissing sound. It is well known that a hissing sound 
is produced by other serpents as well as other animals ; but the hiss 
of the bull-snake has a peculiar hoarseness which is sometimes so 
— loud that, with the help of the imagination, it appears to have 
! Read before the Biological Society of Washington, October, 1883. 
