60 THE AMERICAN MIDLAND NATURALIST 



The eggs are deposited in loose earth or damp sawdus't (Surface, 1906, 

 159) and in manure piles (Hay, 1892b, 396). No doubt they may be laid in 

 almost any situation which provides the requisite amounts of moisture and 

 heat. Twelve eggs were found in an old manure pile in Muskingum County, 

 August 25, 1931. One of these, preserved August 28, 1931, contained a well 

 formed embryo, but the attached yolk equaled about half the bulk of the snake 

 and the hemipenes were still everted. Eleven juveniles and the eggs from which 

 they apparently had just hatched were dug from a large sawdust pile in Hock- 

 ing County, September 11, 1932. The young snakes varied from 13^4 to 

 I41/4, and averaged 13% inches in length. 



Elaphe vulpina (Baird and Girard) 



Fox Snake; Timber Snake 



Description. — A medium to large snake attaining a length in excess of five 

 feet. Largest adult Ohio specimen {$), 621/4 inches; smallest newly hatched 

 juvenile, lO^J^ inches. Head medium and somewhat distinct from the neck. 

 Eye medium. Head plates normal; two nasals, the nostril lateral and between 

 them; loreal present. Body moderately slender in juveniles to medium stout 

 or even robust in adults. Tail short and stout and terminated by a sharp 

 horny spine. 



Dorsal scale rows most frequently 25-23-21 or 23-25-23-21, less often 27- 

 25-23-21 or 25-27-25-23-21; reduced to 19 posteriorly in one specimen from 

 Erie County. First six, seven or eight rows of scales anteriorly, and first one 

 to six rows posteriorly, smooth; the others weakly keeled. Keels obsolete in 

 very small juveniles. Upper labials 8, rarely 7 or 9; lower labials 11, les.? 

 frequently 10, 12 or 9, in the order given. One preocular (2 on the left side 

 in a specimen from Erie County) ; 2 postoculars. Temporals 2, or occasion- 

 ally 3, in the first row, and 3 or 4 in the second row. Ventrals in males 199 

 to 206, average 202.3; in females 197 to 215, average 208.6. Subcaudals in 

 males 62 to 69, average 65.8; in females 54 to 65, average 57.2. 



Ground color above, yellowish to light brown, frequently finely stippled 

 with brownish. From head to a point above the anus a median series of 28 to 

 39 chocolate to black dorsal blotches about 4, 5 or 6 scales long by 10 to 15 

 scales wide, and separated from one another by about the length of two scales. 

 Blotches usually subquadrate but often united with each other or contorted 

 from the normal. A series of lateral blotches, on about the second to the 

 seventh rows of scales inclusive, alternating with the vertebral series. Alter- 

 nating in turn with this row is still another row occupying the first two or 

 three rows of scales and the ends of the ventrals. Blotches continued on the 

 tail but less distinct and presenting a banded effect posteriorly. 



Head light brown or light reddish brown with a dark band running from 

 the eye to the angle of the mouth and another downward from the eye to the 

 mouth. Usually a transverse dark band along the suture formed by the pre- 

 frontals on one side and the supraoculars on the other. Frontal and parietals 

 marked more or less with brown. Sutures between labials occasionally blackish. 



