252 REPTILES OF THE WORLD 



Mud Snake, of Florida. Here is an excellent example 

 of degenerate relationship to the water snakes. The 

 length of an adult is a foot and a half. Above, the 

 coloration is lustrous blue-black; the abdomen is deep 

 red. Even when closely inspected, this highly-polished 

 snake seems to have keeled scales, a delusion produced 

 by a thread-like yellow line traversing the center of each 

 scale. The lines seem to represent the location of the 

 keels found among the ancestral forms and which have 

 been obliterated to meet an underground existence. In 

 the habits is also a hint of ancestral traits. Specimens 

 are to be found hiding under chips of bark near the 

 edges of ponds ; but dry hammock lands are also selected 

 as burrowing grounds. Some of the writer's examples 

 were kept in cages provided with several inches of fine 

 dry sand. They were always in hiding. When dug 

 out of the sand, there was a frantic scramble to hide 

 again, a specimen throwing itself from one's hand and 

 burrowing with an agile swimming motion. The snake 

 does not seem to go deeply into the sand — barely an inch 

 below the surface. Once imbedded, it moves slowly, 

 when its progress may be noted by a moving ripple in 

 the yielding soil. Kept in all sorts of what would 

 appear to be favorable conditions, none of the examples 

 could be induced to eat. A trait appealing to the water 

 snakes is the habit of producing living young. One 

 snake gave birth to nine active youngsters on the twenty- 

 first of August. They were colored precisely like the 

 parent and just as persistent in digging their way out 

 of sight. 



Storeria seems to be another genus made up of de- 

 generate descendants of the striped snake and water 

 snake group. The viviparous habits point significantly 

 to such relationship. The scales are roughly keeled. 



