296 
ZOOLOGY. 
Sp. Ch. —Head sub-triangular. Plates on top of head squamiform, irregular, angulated, and imbricated ; scales between 
superciliaries small, numerous, uniform. Four rows of scales between the sub-orbital series (which only extends to the centre 
of the orbit) and the labials. Labials 15 or 18, nearly uniform. Dorsal series 27-29. Dorsal blotches quadrate, concave 
before and behind ; intervals greater behind. Spots transversely quadrate posteriorly, ultimately becoming 10 or 12 half rings. 
Two transverse lines on superciliaries, enclosing about one-third. Stripe from superciliary to angle of jaws crosses angle of 
the mouth on the second row above labial. Rostral mangined with lighter. 
Milk river, Nebraska. 
This species is very numerous on the Missouri river and its tributaries, between Fort Union, 
Nebraska, and the Rocky mountains. In July and August they are found very common in the 
dry canons, and among the willow brush, and cottonwood forests along the banks of the rivers. 
They are then sluggish and stupid, being, according to popular belief, “blind,” and are said 
to be at that season exceedingly venomous. This stupid condition during the drought of 
summer is not uncommon to many species of snakes, the torpidity being analogous to that of 
hybernation, and may therefore be called aestivation. Hunters have told me that the serpents 
are “blind,” because they are at that time about shedding the cuticle, and that as evidence of 
loss of vision the snake, when provoked, will “strike wildly.”—S. 
EUTAINIA ATRATA, Kennicott. 
Sp. Ch. —Body compact, cylindrical, moderately stout. Head small and narrow, eye very small ; eight upper labials sixth 
largest. Dorsal rows of scales seventeen, exterior row largest, higher than long, and very slightly carinated ; the next row 
smaller, but considerably larger than the third, distinctly carinated. Scales of the central dorsal rows proportionately shorter 
than in E . concinna and E. pickeringii. A very broad, deep lemon yellow dorsal stripe, covering nearly three rows, and distinct 
horn head to tip of tail. The rest of the upper parts entirely deep blue black, without a trace of the lateral stripe or of light 
spots. Abdomen entirely uniform greenish slate, yellowish green under the head.— Kennicott. 
California.—C. 
EUTAINIA COOPER!, Kennicott. 
Plate XY, Reptiles, Fig. 1. 
Tire Red Striped Garter Snake. 
Evtainia cooperi, Kenn. Proc. Acad. Nat. Sc. Philad. 1859, p. —. 
Sp. Ch. —Body stout, compact, and cylindrical, as in E. radix, dorsal rows of scales only seventeen. Head short, depressed 
anteriorly. Labials seen above; the 5th twice as large as the 7th, being the largest of all, and greatly developed. Colors (in 
alcohol,) above, uniform blackish brown, without spots, or olivaceous brown with two rows of black spots, as in E. vagrans, 
but which do not encroach upon the stripes. Dorsal stripes yellowish, distinct on one and two half rows ; lateral stripe usually 
distinct, covering the second and part of the third rows ; the row below being of the same color as the back. Abdomen usually 
slate color, sometimes lighter. Body frequently suffused with red, especially the dorsal stripe ; abdomen sometimes tinged with 
red.— Kennicott. 
The most highly colored specimens of this snake were caught in one spot, on the 2d of 
August, in a small prairie in the Cathlapoot’l valley. They had the colors represented in the 
plate, but which fade after long keeping in alcohol. Others obtained in the Willopah valley, 
in 1854, had dark stripes, and young ones were without spots.—C. 
EUTAINIA PICKERINGII, Baird & Girard. 
Pickering’s Garter Snake. 
E. pickeringii, B. & G. Cat. N. Amer. Serpents, 1853, p. 27. —Girard, Expl. Exped. Reptiles, p. 150, pi. XIII, 
fig. 14-20. 
g p _ q Hi _Body rather slender ; dorsal rows of scales nineteen, the first large and moderately carinated. Head large and 
high, with the upper labials well developed, seven in number, the fifth largest. Color, black above ; the stripes three, greenish 
