THE REPTILES OF OHIO 221 



Butler County: Monroe (USNM 10661-3). Fayf.tte County: Buena Vista 

 (TMS 2044). Hamilton County: Newtown (CSNH). 



These localities are all in the extreme southwestern part of the state. It is 

 quite possible, however, that future collecting may demonstrate that blanchardi 

 is widely distributed through a large part of western Ohio. 



Among the five snakes listed above, the ventral counts are 131 and 132 in 

 the two males and 144, 145 and 145 m the three females. Both males are 

 from Butler County; one has 92 subcaudals ?.nd the other has 99, but the 

 scales in the latter snake are somewhat irregular, hence, this is probably an 

 abnormally high figure. The greatest number of subcaudals recorded among 

 Ohio specimens of vernalis is 88; this count occurs in three males. 



At the present time only forty-three grass snakes from Ohio are available 

 for study. Twenty-eight of these can be assigned to vernalis and five to blan- 

 chardi. The remaining ten specimens — all from the central part of the state — - 

 may or may not be members of an intergrading population. They constitute 

 but a meagre sample on which to base conclusions, and the matter is further 

 complicated by the fact that there is only a single character — the ventral count 

 — to use in distinguishing between subspecies. (In Coluber, by way of con- 

 trast, there are four characteristics [Table 3, p. 51} that help to separate flav't- 

 rentris from coyi strict or.') The area of intergradation tentatively indicated on 

 Map 47 is little more than guesswork; it has been drawn to include only those 

 localities from which the specimens suggest an overlap in the matter of ven- 

 trals. Thus, snakes from Erie and Crawford counties (in the eastern part of 

 the stippled area) have the high counts of blanchardi. and snakes from Har- 

 din, Wyandot, Marion, and Franklin counties have the lower counts of 

 vernalis. Locality records for this part of Ohio are: 



Crawford Counts-: Broken Sword (TMS 2281). Erie County: (UMMZ 

 39115); Kimball (USNM 35687); Sandhill (CNHM 2554); Sandusky (OSM 12); 

 10 mi. S of Sandusky (SHS). Franklin County': Columbus (USNM 1472). Har- 

 DiN County: Patterson (TMS 1683). Marion Counts': Morral (OSM 818). 

 Wyandot County: Upper Sandusky (OSM 725). 



Rausch advises me that he collected a few smooth green snakes in Marion 

 Twp., Marion County, but these unfortunately were not preserved. 



When, and if, numbers of specimens become available from central and 

 Western Ohio, it will be of interest to see where intergradation takes place 

 between vernal:s and blanchardi. Possibly there may be a relatively broad 

 area occupied by an intergrading pooulation. Eventually it may be demon- 

 strated, however, that the two forms show considerable overlapping, with blan- 

 chardi being confined more or less to prairie habitats and with vernalis 

 occurring near-by in localities where forests once were present. Most of Ohio 

 was originally forested, but the western half of the state, in pre-pioneer days, 

 included a large nuinber of prairie "islands," some of them quite extensive in 

 area. These, which formed part of the Prairie Peninsula, have been mapped 

 in some detail by Transeau (1935, fig. 1). The intensive agricultural activi- 

 ties conducted by mankind have vastly altered the original habitats, but some 

 of the prairies still survive (at least in part) as relicts. If the Ohio records 

 for grass snakes with high {blanchardi^ ventral counts were to be plotted on 

 Transeau's map, several of them would fall directly upon prairie "islands," 



