516 CATENATED SNAKE, 



while the colour of the upper parts is more obscure. 

 This animal inhabits moist meadows, hedges, watry 

 places, &c. It is of a fierce disposition in its wild 

 state, biting with much eagerness such animals as 

 liappen to attack it, but is incapable of producing 

 any injury, being unprovided with poisonous fangs, 

 and is easily tamed, in which state it shows a con- 

 siderable degree of attachment. It occasionally 

 varies somewhat in colour, the upper parts having 

 a strong tinge of rufous, and the abdomen of 

 dusky brown or even blackish, while the sides 

 have a cast of yellow or green. 



CATENATED SNAKE. 



Coluber Catcnatus. C. albidus, supra maculis quadratis fuscis 



tessdatisy abdornine fasciis latis subfuscis distantibus. 

 Whitish Snake, tesselatcd above with square brown spots, and 

 marked on the abdomen by ver}^ distant, broad dusky bands- 

 Abdominal scuta 147, subcaudal scales 78. 



Length about two feet : colour pale or whitish : 

 marked above by numerous square brown spots 

 alternately disposed, and joining at the angles: 

 abdomen pale or white, with six or seven very dis- 

 tant, broad, dusky, transverse bands, one of which 

 is placed immediately beneath the throat: head 

 small, white on the sides, and brown on the top, 

 but marked by a white bar across the nose, join- 

 ing with two large white marks over the eyes, and 

 thus constituting a kind of reversed horseshoe- 

 shaped white spot on the head : from behind each 



