Vol. XVJ, pp. 83-83 June 25, 1903 



PROCEEDINGS 



OF THE 



BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON 



THE SHORT-MOUTHED SNAKE (EUTMXIA BIIA 

 CIIYjSTOMA GOPE) IN SOUTHERN MICHIGAN. 



BY HUBERT LYMAN CLARK. 



In 1892, Cope described, under the name Eutainia brachy- 

 stoma, a small garter-snake from Franklin County, Pennsyl- 

 vania, which had been sent to him in alcohol, the distinguishing 

 feature being the small number of labial plates in both the 

 upper and under jaws. Since the description was published no 

 other specimens have been taken and the validity of the species 

 has been openly questioned. It is therefore a matter of consid- 

 erable interest that the species has been found in the vicinity of 

 Olivet, Michigan, on several occasions, during the spring of 

 1903. The first specimens taken were a male and female col- 

 lected April 20, beside a rail fence crossing an open but very 

 wet pasture. The fence ran close beside a pool of water where 

 there was a growth of willow and alder bushes, and it was under 

 the shelter of these bushes that the snakes were found. On 

 April 23, careful search in the same locality revealed a second 

 female and April 29, another female was taken at the same spot. 

 On May V, still another female was captured beside the same 

 fence but some sixty yards from the bushes. On May 12, a 

 fifth female was taken in a very wet swamp on the margin of a 

 lake, half a mile or more from the above mentioned pasture. 

 23— Proc. Biol. Soc. Wash. Vol. XVI, 1903. (83) 



