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COPPERHEAD. | 675 
Genus ANCISTRODON. Beauvois. 
Cephalic region covered with nine large plates arranged as in Colubride ; vertical and super- 
ciliaries on a line with the eye, occipitals farther back; anteorbitale two, elongated 
longitudinally ; nasals two; loral present, excluded from the the orbit; head flattened, 
triangular; dorsal scales in 23 rows, carinated ; tail rather short, tapering to a point, 
and without rattle; urosteges divided posteriorly. 
AN CISTRODON CONTORTRIX Linnezus. 
Copperhead. 
Boa contortriz, LINNE/US, GMELIN, 
Agkisivodon moxason, BEAUVOIS. 
Cenchris contoririx, DAUDIN. 
Cenchris mokeson, HARLAN. 
Scytalus cupreus, RAFINESQUE, HARLAN. 
Toxicophis, TROOST. 
Trigonocephalus cenchris, SCHLEGEL. 
Trigonocephalus contortric, HOLBROOK, HALLOWELL, KiRTLAND, DEKAY, DUMERIL and 
BIBRON. 
Ancistrodon contortrix, BAIRD and GIRARD, Cops, ALLEN. 
Copper colored above, brighter upon the flanks; reddish-brown transverse bands upon 
the back, about 16 in number, dilated upon the sides; rounded spots of a similar color 
between these bands; lateral biotches from 30-38, varying from round to sub-quadrate, 
dusky ; beneath palecupreous; postorbital plates two, continuous under the eye with two 
small infraorbilals; superciliaries broad and long; vertical slightly longer than the 
occipitals, the latter notched posteriorly ; labials, S above, 9 below; inframixillaries 
fad 
small; gastrosteges, 150-155 ; urosteges, 40-50; tail terminating in a horny point, the 
analogue of the rattle in the Crotalide. WLength, 29 inehes; head, i$ inches; tail, 34 
General color grayish ash, vertebral blotches varying from circular to triangular or 
elliptical, from 37 to 45 in number, each with a yellow border; a reddish-purple verte- 
ral line extending from head to tail through the blotches; lateral blotches in two or 
three series; naps with a grayish to yellowish longitudinal band, with a black blotch 
on each side anteriorly; a narrow line of white extends from the angle of the mouth to 
the eye; vertical plate irregularly snb-hexagonal; labials, 10-11 on a sidé above, 11-12 
below ; anteorbitals two, elongated longitudinally; loral one on each side; nasals two; 
rostral large, irregular, urn shaped, smallest above; dorsal scales in 23 rows; gastros- 
teges, 130-140; uresteges, 30-40, usually not well marked. Length, 17 inches; head, % 
inch; tail, 24 inches; transverse diameter of head, }inch; of neck, 3-16 inch; circum- 
ference of body, 2 inches. 
Habitat, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Arkansas. 
DeKay records this species in Michigan, on what authority I am unable to determine. 
If it is a resident cf that State it will doubtless yet be found in Ohio. However, its ex- 
treme southern range leads me to believe that its reference to the fauna of VOM a 16 
a mistake, and that it probably does not occur within our limits. 
