244 THE AMERICAN MIDLAND NATURALIST 



open; it was seen in midafternoon crawling over the edge of a rock-. In this 

 instance Johnson says, "There had been hght sprinkles intermittently through- 

 out the day and the surface of the ground was wet; oak and pine covered ths 

 surrounding slopes." All his other ground snakes were found under various 

 objects; six were beneath stones and one had hidden itself under an old cement 

 sack. Of these seven specimens, three were in abandoned fields, one was in 

 cleared bottom lands, one was in a roadside ditch, and the other two were 

 along a road that had oak forest on one side and the immature swamp forest 

 of a flood plain on the other. 



Wood has notes on the habitat situations in which three specimens of 

 Haldea were taken at the junction of Richardson and Egyptian Hollows in 

 Pike County. These were found under a slate slab in an open meadow, under 

 a flat stone in a temporarily dry creek through a wooded area, and in a small 

 building in a Boy Scouu camp. 



The information that follows is based upon eight male and ten female 

 specimens of Haldea from Ohio (including those for which data are tabulated 

 on page 95) : The scale rows are 15 in every instance except one (see below). 

 The labials (both upper and lower) are 6 in all, except that there are 7 infra- 

 labials on one side of the head in one female. The postoculars, usually 2, 

 are 3 on one side of the head in three femal-^s and one male, and 3 on both 

 sides in one male and one female. There is invariably a single anterior tem- 

 poral; the posterior temporals, usually 2, are reduced to a single scale on one 

 side of the head in one female and one male, and to a single scale on both 

 sides in two males and one fem.ale. Ventrals in the males vary from 115 to 

 121, mean 116.9; in the females from 120 to 132, mean 123.2. Subcaudals in 

 the males vary from 31 to 38, mean 35.6; in the females (9 specimens) from 

 23 to 31, mean 26.6. 



The two snakes from Adams County are both juveniles; one of these has 

 an undivided anal plate and both have a large percentage of the dorsal scales 

 keeled, even well forward on the body. All other specimens either have all 

 smooth scales or there are keels only on the hindmost part of the body. One 

 of the above-mentioned juveniles measures 125 mm. (slightly less than 5 

 inches) in length, and it is hence somewhat shorter than the smallest indi- 

 vidual previously recorded from the state. 



A specimen from Pike County (WED 405) exhibits two anomalies in 

 scutellation. Counts of 13 and 14 rows can be made upon the anterior fourth 

 of the bodv; the reduction is caused by the fusing of the 2nd and 3rd rows 

 of dorsal scales, this occurring farther forward on the right side of the bodv 

 than on the left. Also the posterior part of the loreal is cut off on each side 

 of the head to form a small preocular. This snake is a female measuring 218 

 mm. in length and it contains four large eggs; it was collected on June 26, 

 1949. 



A female from Scioto County (OSM 865), measuring 222 mm. in length 

 (collected on June 16, 1949, but preserved some time later), has five ripening 

 eggs in its abdominal cavity. In each of them an embryo is clearly visible. 



