The Poisonous Snakes of Texas. 
29 
blotches. Two elongated brown blotches extend from the superciliaries 
(snpraocnlars) backward. A narrow band of chestnut-brown, from the 
posterior frontal plates (prefrontals), passes over the eyes to the neck, 
under which a yellowish stripe extends from the nostrils to the angle of 
the mouth. The snout and upper jaw are brown, with two yellow fillets 
diverging from the pit. The lower jaw and chin are mottled with brown 
and yellow. There are about 42 dorsal brown and irregular blotches, 
margined with deep black and encircled with a yellow fillet, from the 
head to the tip of the tail. The thirty-fourth opposite the anus, the last 
three passing to the sides of the tail, but do not meet below. Subcir- 
cular on the posterior half of the body, the blotches on the anterior half 
are longer transversely than longitudinally, emarginated anteriorly only. 
The blotches of the two lateral series are proportionately small. The 
blotches of the upper series are more or less obsolete, and alternate with 
the dorsal ones. Those of the second lateral series are the smallest, and 
alternate also, being of as deep a color as the dorsal ones, but do not 
extend beyond the anus, occupying the second, third, and fourth rows of 
scales. The first and lowest series affect the first and second rows and 
•only one scale. The belly is of a light straw color, dotted and sprinkled 
irregularly with brown. Scales elliptical, subtruncated posteriorly, con- 
stituting twenty-three rows, strongly carinated, except the two lateral 
rows, which are smooth. Head, when seen from above, subelliptical; 
vertical plate (frontal) proportionately more elongated than in C. ter - 
geminus (S. catenatus). Humber of ventrals (gastrosteges), 143 to 
153; of caudals (urosteges), 24 to 31; scale rows across middle of body 
23.” (Stejneger, “Poisonous Snakes of North America.”) 
GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION. 
Dr. Stejneger says : “It is found from the Indian Territory, through 
Western Texas, to the Mexican border.” (“Poisonous Snakes of North 
America,” p. 418.) 
Dr. Cope says : “This species ranges throughout Texas and part of 
Oklahoma, the Wichita specimen being the ]argest that I have seen. I 
took a specimen in the sandy region in the eastern part of Wheeler 
County, in the Panhandle of Texas.” (Report of National Museum, 
1898, p. 1146.) 
I have never found this species myself. 
HABITS. 
Nothing is known of its habits. 
