VARIATIONS OF GARTER-SNAKES. 167 



spots anteriorly of the two series may fuse to form transverse blotches 

 between the stripes. The dorsal stripe is on the median and halves of 

 the adjacent rows and with the lateral stripes may be bright orange 

 yellow, bright yellow, various shades of greenish yellow, or bluish. 

 The first row is usually sulliciently darker to define the lateral stripe 

 below,, but this is not always the case. The belly ma}^ be grayish, 

 greenish, or bluish. The better marked variations from the normal 

 type will be considered under "variation." 



Habits and liabitat relations. — Few definite observations have been 

 recorded on the habits of this form. Stomachs examined frequently 

 show specimens of the leopard frog {Rana pipiens), and Taylor (1892, 

 325) writes that in Nebraska "specimens of this garter, not exceeding 

 two and one-half feet in length almost always contain within their 

 stomachs specimens of the common earthworm." Specimens in cap- 

 tivity will eat both frogs and toads voraciously. 



In northern Iowa parietalis is rather rare. On a two months' col- 

 lecting trip in Clay and Palo Alto counties, July and August, 1907, an 

 expedition from the University of Michigan Museum obtained but 

 three specimens, although a careful search was made for them. Of 

 these two were found on the immediate edge of large sloughs (fig. 23), 

 the third in a rather swampy swale on the prairie. We have also, 

 however, taken a few specimens in the long grass on the uplands in 

 this region (fig. 24), but they are apparently very rare in this habitat. 

 Another specimen was taken on the bank of a small creek near the 

 Missouri River, in Woodbury County, Iowa. One of the specimens 

 taken in Palo Alto County in 1907 was a large female, and on- Septem- 

 ber 30 gave birth to seventy-three young. 



Range. — It is rather interesting that, although parietalis has been 

 well known for many years, the limits of its range can nowhere be 

 established at present except on the west. Its range is greater than 

 that of any other known garter-snake and includes a number of biotic 

 regions. It may be said in general to extend from the western part of 

 the "prairie j^eninsula" in Iowa to the Cascade range in Oregon, 

 Washington, and British Columbia, and to the Pacific coast in Cali- 

 fornia, and from northern New Mexico into Canada. Undoubted 

 specimens have been examined from the following localities: ]\Ienlo 

 Park, Fort Reading, Pitt River, San Francisco, Petunia, Fort Crook, 

 Fresno, Crescent City, Tomales Bay, Petaluma, Eureka, Yosemite 

 Valley (altitude 4,000 feet), Palo Alto, Camp Bidwell, Californ'ia; 

 Gold Beach, Des Chutes River, Dalles, Warners Second Lake, Oregon; 

 Cheney, Pullman, Fort Walla Walla, Washington; vSicamous, Nelson, 

 Kaslo, Donald, British Columbia; Lake Tahoe, Camp 10 and 12 

 (Ridgway), Nevada; Carson Valley, Logan (10 miles east of), Utah; 

 Fort Collins, Denver, Greeley, Colorado ; Flathead Lake, Swan Lake, 

 Fort Benton, Bitter Root Mountains, Billings, Fort Custer, Three 



