44 BULLETIN 114, UNITED STATES NATIONAL MUSEUM. 



exactly like that of lioTbroold except that the spots are fewer and 

 much smaller. 



The penial characters seem to agree with those of Jiolbrookij even 

 to the extent and prominence of the minute spines. 



The dentition of a specimen from Wheatland, Indiana, is as follows : 

 Maxillary teeth, 13-13; mandibular, 14-13,^ palatine, 9-9; ptery- 

 goid, 16-17. 



This form may be known from holbrooki from the fact that the 

 adults have no white spots, or but very few, on the scales between the 

 dorsal crossbands; young examples may resemble holbrooki^ but the 

 crossbands are very narrow, less than half a scale in width, and all 

 the white spots are smaller than in the latter form. It may be known 

 from splendida by the fact that the dorsal scales are in 21 instead of 

 23 rows; and from getulus it may be distinguished by the narrower 

 and dotted crossbands instead of wider and continuous ones, and by 

 their greater number, more than 50. 



Habitat and habits, — ^Almost nothing is recorded upon this subject. 

 Blatchley (1899, 545) says for Vigo County, Indiana, that it ''fre- 

 quents rocky hillsides and the vicinity of streams," and mentions 

 finding one in the act of swallowing a Eutaenia sirtalis. The writer 

 foimd an adult at Henry, Tennessee, a little after sunset, stretched < 

 out at fuU length by the side of a road through farming country. 

 It had doubtless been concealed during the day in the thick bushes 

 between the side of the road and the open field adjacent. It offered 

 no resistance whatever to being picked up. 



Range, — This form occurs from extreme eastern Illinois to southern 

 Ohio and south to northern Alabama. 



The only published records for specimens not examined by the 

 writer are those of H. Garman (1894, 35), for Midland, Kentucky, 

 which was probably this form, and Blatchley (1899, 545) for Putnam 

 County, Indiana. 



Three specimens in the collection of the Museum of Comparative 

 Zoology (no. S3), labeled ''Ohio," are almost typical of TioTbrooki and 

 one in the National Museum collection (no. 12026) labeled "Mt. 

 Carmel, Illinois" is quite so. More specimens are much needed to 

 definitely settle the status of this form. 



Variation and affinities. — The specimens named niger by Yarrow 

 were supposed to have been derived from typical getulus by increase 

 in black pigment at the expense of the yellow. It was evidently 

 overlooked that the crossbands were the same in character and in 

 number as in liolbrooki. The scale formulae and the penial characters 

 also aUy it much closer with liolbrooJci than with getulus. That it is, 

 however, closely connected with the latter there can be no doubt. 

 A specimen from the Cherokee Nation in the mountains of North 

 Carolina with 37 crossbands presents a strong contrast with one 



