ALLEN: REPTILES AND AMPHIBIANS OF INTERVALE, N. H. 65 
steges (from eleven specimens), 143-152. Urosteges, 117-143. 
Total length, 662 mm.; tail, 141 mm. 
Color (from living specimens). Adult; ground color above, 
brownish olive to olive-brown. Dorsal side of the head, olive, with 
two small yellowish spots at the inner margins of the parietals. 
Superior labials, light greenish white to yellowish. The dorsal 
stripe, which begins at or slightly behind the posterior margins of 
the parietals, is easily traceable for an inch or two as a light yellow 
marking, occupying one, and two half rows of scales. From here it 
may usually be traced back as far as the tail as an indistinct grayish 
olive marking which, on close inspection, it is difficult to separate 
with certainty from the surrounding olive-colored area. The lateral 
stripes (one on each side) occupy the second and third scale rows. 
In color they are from greenish yellow to ochraceous, brightest 
anteriorly, and sometimes tinted with chestnut. Between the 
dorsal and lateral stripes, there are, on each side, two longitudinal 
series of squarish spots, best seen when the skin is distended. The 
spots of the upper series alternate with those of the lower series. 
Each spot involves from three to four scales of two transverse rows, 
and each scale of the spot is chestnut colored, with narrow black 
edgings and black interspaces. The two rows of spots are usu¬ 
ally separated by a single longitudinal row of olive scales, which 
form the sixth row in transverse series. Interspaces of other scales 
above the lateral stripe are white. Below the lateral stripe, the 
first row of scales and the ends of the gastrosteges are usually 
light chestnut and sometimes olive-green, as in younger examples. 
Beneath, from pearly white to light greenish yellow. A row of 
black spots is present on the ends of the gastrosteges. The black 
of each spot may extend upward along the anterior margin of the 
gastrostege and beyond so as to include the anterior margin of the 
next scale or two in the rows above, but such markings do not 
occur very regularly. 
Young. Similar to adult in general coloration, but the ground 
color is a very pale olive, the dorsal stripe is grayish white and 
rather more distinct than in the adult. The lateral stripes are very 
pale yellow, sometimes hardly distinguishable from the color of the 
bellv, which is grayish white. A large fuscous nuchal spot on 
each side. 
In his original description of Coluber sirtalis , Linnaeus gives 
(Syst. nat., ed. 10, 1758, p. 222) the characters as “three greenish 
