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THE AMERICAN MUSEUM JOURNAL 



paler hue. The Hne of intersection of the hghter color with the 

 coppery tints of the top begins behind the eye and runs to the 

 angle of the mouth. Beneath, the body is pinkish white, with 

 two rows of reddish-brown blotches; the scales are keeled; the 

 pupil of the eye is elHptical.' 



Although the head of this serpent is triangular and distinct 

 from the neck, the general appearance of the reptile would not 

 immediately lead the uninitiated to class it as a poisonous snake. 

 Several of our local serpents are quite as heavy in body as the 





FIG. 17. COPPERHEAD SNAKE 



formidable Copperhead. The Milk Snake, the Hog-nosed Snake 

 and the Water Snake are sometimes confounded with the Copper- 

 head, partly on account of a similarity of pattern, and partly on 

 account of the stout bodies of the last two species. From the 

 Milk Snake the Copperhead may be at once distinguished by its 

 keeled scales; from the Hog-nosed Snake and the Water Snake 

 by the arrangement of the plates under the tail.^ Beginning 

 from the vent, these broad plates in the harmless reptiles are in 

 two rows ; in the Copperhead they are arranged in one row, ex- 

 tending across the underside of the tail like the plates of the 

 belly, with the exception (in some specimens) of a few scattered, 

 divided plates near the tip of the tail. From all the harmless 

 snakes the Copperhead may be distinguished by the presence of a 



' The eyes of all of our harmless snakes have round pupils. 



2 The sub-caudal plates of all the harmless snakes are in two rows. 



