24 
ZOOLOGY. 
Besides the reptiles above described there were also in the collection of Dr. Heermann two 
specimens of Ilolbroolcia maculata, which is said to be very abundant in Texas, being often found 
in the holes of the prairie dog, ( Arctomys ludoviciana ,) and a fine specimen of Ilerpetodryas 
aestivus. This does not appear to differ essentially from the Id. aestivus of Pennsylvania. It is 
somewhat more robust, the scales are broader, and there are some unimportant differences in 
regard to the smoothness of the external and inferior rows of scales, but these are not of suffi¬ 
cient importance to constitute specific characters. In the genus Ilerpetodryas , the opening of 
the nostril is in a single plate, or between two plates according to Dumeril and Bibron. In 
Leptopliis always between two plates. The Col. vernalis of DeKay belongs to the genus Ilerpeto¬ 
dryas, and in our opinion should not be separated from it, because it has smooth scales, those of 
aestivus being carinated. Examples of Leptopliis may be found in Leptopliis smaragdina, Lept. 
lateralis , and Lept. leiocercus, the scales of the trunk of which are carinated, and those of the 
tail smooth. Ten species of Leptopliis are described by Dumeril and Bibron in their Erpetologie 
Generale. 
There was also in the collection a full grown specimen of Bhinocheilus lecontii , Baird and 
Girard, caught about one hundred miles from Pecos river, in the open prairie. It corresponds 
very well with the description in their work on serpents, except tha tthe pre-abdominal scuta 
is entire and not bifid, as they represent it, and that the sub-caudal scutellae are not all single, 
nineteen of the latter being bifid. 
There is also a small plate behind the occipital, 190 abdominal scutae, 1 bifid pre-abdominal, 
28 single sub-caudal towards the anus, then 4 rows of bifid, then 1 single, and lastly 15 bifid, 
as in Coluber and Tropidonotus. 
Dimensions —Length ( f head five-eighths of an inch ; breadth | an inch; length of body 16 inches; of tail 3 inches. 
Gen. Obs. — Future inquiries must determine whether Bhinocheilus lecontii should be removed 
from the genus Bhinecliis of Michaelles, of which but one species has heretofore been described, 
viz: the Bhinecliis scalaris, of which there is a good figure in Bonaparte’s Fauna Italica. In 
the genus Bhinecliis, as characterized by its author, the plates under the tail are all bifid. 
Dimensions of tho specimen of aestivus ,* from Texas: Length of head six-eighths of an inch; breadth three-eighths; length 
of body 16i inches ; of tail 10 inches; circumference of body l§ inch. 
* Leptophis mnjalis, B. & G. Marcy’s Report, pi. IX. 
