Florida and Some Snakes 22 S 



specimen of what I was certain was a new king snake. 

 Finally I got a beautiful specimen. I had nothing to put it 

 in at the time I caught it but a stiff paper bag, which I 

 carried back to Palm Beach and set down in our bedroom. 

 It was late in the evening and I did nothing about preserv- 

 ing the specimen that night. When I woke up the next 

 morning, lo and behold the bag was empty. We pulled the 

 room apart without finding our snake. I overlooked until 

 later a rat hole under one of the doors. But we found out 

 where the snake was before very long, for wild cries from 

 the kitchen took me out there on the run. The snake, about 

 five feet long, was neatly coiled up next the hot-water 

 boiler, apparently entirely satisfied with life. 



This snake is now M. C. Z. number 12,456 and is the 

 type of Lampropeltis brooksi, named for my friend. 



I believe a hundred years from now there is one thing 

 that conchologists are certain to say — "It was a darn good 

 thing old T. B. got interested in Ligs when he did." Ligs, 

 be it known, are the tree snails of the genus Liguus. Their 

 distribution is strictly limited to parts of Cuba, Isle of Pines, 

 Haiti, the Florida Keys, and the extreme southern part of 

 the peninsula of Florida itself. Moreover, in Florida they 

 are not generally distributed. They are only associated with 

 certain types of trees which grow in those enigmatical plant 

 associations known as hammocks. 



The origin of these tiny islands of tropical broad-leaved 

 trees scattered about in the pine lands is very difficult to 

 explain, but the fact remains that once there were many of 

 these hammocks scattered over south Florida and a few in 

 the Keys. The very fact of their existence is proof of the 



