_T. s. parietalis_ may be diagnosed, on the basis of these snakes from northeastern Kansas, as follows: Size medium large (length 23.5 to 34.5, or, exceptionally 43.5 inches in adult males; 32.5 to 46.0 inches in adult females), dorsolateral color olive to black. Approximately every other scale of the third row is bordered above and anteriorly by a crescent-shaped area of scarlet colored skin. Similar crescent-shaped areas border the scales of the fourth and fifth rows and often two adjacent crescents meet at the ends of an intervening scale and fuse forming an H-shaped mark. Placed alternately with these markings are similar but smaller crescent-shaped markings on the skin of the upper half of the dorsolateral area on each side bordering every other scale of the sixth, seventh and eighth rows. The crescents of this upper series also may fuse to form series of H-shaped markings alternating with those of the lower series. The dorsal stripe is yellow with a faint dusky suffusion; it involves all of the middorsal scale row and approximately the adjacent half of the row on either side. The lateral stripe is faint, yellowish gray, chiefly on the upper half of the second scale row, lower half of third, and the intervening skin, and is often invaded or suffused by the red marks of the dorsolateral area. The first scale row, adjacent corners of the ventrals, and lower half of the second scale row are suffused with dark pigment and appear dusky, but this area is often marked with black, setting off the paler area of the lateral stripe. The ventrals are dull, whitish, faintly suffused with yellowish, greenish or bluish, each ventral having a black dot usually of semicircular shape on its anterior margin near the anterolateral corner. COMPARISON OF _T. S. PARIETALIS_ AND _T. S. FITCHI_