SAY’S CHAIN SNAKE. 689 
GENUS OPHIBOLUS Baird and Girard. 
Body moderately elongated ; head slightly, if at all, separable from the neck ; ceph- 
alic plates normal; vertical very broad ; superciliaries narrow ; postfrontals and prefron- 
tals, each a pair, of moderate size; occipitals large ; postorbitals two; anteorbitals one; 
nasal one, with an indented line giving it the appearance of two; labials and infra- 
maxillaries rather large; dorsal scales in 21-25 rows, smooth, not imbricated; gas- 
trosteges, 180-220; urosteges, 44-65; post-abdominal scutella entire or bifid. 
{ Dorsal scales in 21 or 23 rows; anal plate entire. a. | 
t Dersal seales in 25 rows; anal plate bifid, . : : : . O. CALLIGASTER. 
a. Gastrosteges, 180-210. Db. 
a. Gastrosteges, 210-225; extralimital, Maryland to Louisiana; east of Alleghanies. 
O. GETULUS. 
b. Red, with black rings; headred. . . : 5 . O. DOLIATUS. 
b. Gray, with brown blotches margined with dark; heed gray and black. 
O. TRIANGULUS. 
OPHIBOLUS CALLIGASTER Say. 
Say’s Chaim Snake. 
Coluber calligaster, SAY, HARLAN. 
Ablabes triangulum, var. calligaster ; Ophibolus evansti, KENNICOTT. 
Ophibolus calligaster, COpn, JORDAN. 
General color above grayish-brown, with a vertebral series of from forty to sixty 
chocolate to black sub-quadrangular, emarginaite blotches, margined with still darker; 
head greenish- brown, with darker spots; upper labials yellow; lateral blotches alter- 
nating with the vertebral series, often not very distinct; abdomen maculated with 
approximately quadrilateral dark biotches; vertical plate pentagonal, nearly as long 
as commissural line of occipitals; upper labials, 7 8, lower, 9-11; dorsal scales in 25 rows ; 
anal plate lifid; gastrosteges, 232; urosteges, 60-70. Length, 34 feet; head, 10 lines; 
tail, 5 inches; transverse diameter of head, 8 lines; of neck, 7 lines; circumference of 
body, 3 inches. 
Habitat, Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri, Illinois, and Ohio, 
I am indebted to Prof. Tuttle, of the Ohio State University for the 
single specimen of this species which I have seen from the State. Itcame 
fror: uancaster, in Fairfield county. 
OPHIBOLUS TRIANGULUS Bole. 
Nailk Smale. 
Coluber triangulum, Bors. 
Coluber eximius, DeKay, HARLAN, HOLBROOK, KiRTLAND, STORER, GUNTHER. 
Coluber guttatus, SCULEGUHL. 
Ophibolus eximius, et clericus, BAIRD and GIRARD. 
Ablabes triangulum, DuMmRIL and BIBRON, var. clericus, et eximius, HALLOWELL. 
Lampropeltis triangula, et Ophibolus doliatus, sub-species triangulus, COPE, 
Lampropeltis triangula, VERRILL. 
4£ 
