1915.] NATURAL SCIENCES OF PHILADELPHIA. 177 



until the group is very carefully collected, bred and studied from a 

 large series from several of their supposed geographical habitats. 



Habits. — This species was not so common as the pied water snake. 

 Like it, however, this snake is called ''water moccasin" by the 

 natives who fear it. One evening, one of us accidentally punctured 

 his thumb on the teeth of a recently killed snake of this species.. 

 The next morning several of the native family very concernedly 

 wished to see how bad the thumb would be. Unlike the pied water 

 snake, it is fairly common on the water prairies and about the edges 

 of the islets ("houses" or "heads") of the prairies. We also took 

 this species in the water ditches on the outskirts of the swamp and 

 along the lumber railroad ditches. We were unable to find a single 

 snake of this species along the larger water courses where the pied 

 water snake apparently replaces it. It seems to be more a form 

 of the moist situations on the islands and possibly in the wooded, 

 swampy parts. In disposition it is like other water snakes, but is a 

 poor second to its relative, T. taxispilotus, in pugnacity. 



Food. — It feeds largely on aquatic animals. One specimen (No. 

 6,116), taken May 30, 1912, had two frogs of the most aquatic species 

 of the swamp {Rana sp.) in its stomach and two (Nos. 6,231 and 

 6,115) had taken a southern meadow frog (Rana pipiens spheno- 

 cephala). Only one of the ten had parasites in its stomach. 



13. Storeria dekayi (Holbrook): DeKay's Snake; DeKay's Browo Snake; Little Brown Snake; 

 Brown Snake; Ground Snake; Spotted Snake; Spotted Adder; Brown Grass Snake. Fig. 12. 



Two specimens (Nos. 6,237, 6,239) were secured between July 15 

 and November 1, 1912, by Mr. Jackson Lee, of Billy's Island. This 

 form and its congener, the red-bellied snake, are commonly asso- 

 ciated with dry grounds, but certainly at some seasons within the 

 swamp it must find it impossible to find such a habitat, and it may 

 be less averse to wet situations than once thought. 



Coloration. — Both specimens have the usual grayish-brown or 

 ash-gray on the upper surface with the pale vertebral line bordered 

 by black dots. The venter is white or yellowish-white in alcohol 

 and the row of dots near either end of the gastrostege is present. 

 Besides these, there are finer clots widely separated over the whole 

 belly. The neck has a black band extending from the ends of 

 gastrosteges Nos. 3-5 across the angle of the mouth to the mid-dorsal 

 line where it meets its fellow of the other side. In front of this bar 

 a white band of belly color reaches across the sixth and seventh 

 infralabials and on the sixth and seventh supralabials. The 3d-5th 

 supralabials and the same infralabials are almost entirely black. 

 12 



