HERPETOLOGY OF ZUNI MOUNTAINS — GEHLBACH 311 



Features in common include the light-tan ground color and medium- 

 olive or brown blotches ringed in interrupted fashion by dark-brown 

 spots. Some dorsal blotches are broken into a zigzag row of separate 

 or annectant spots as in other spotted night snakes examined from 

 New Mexico. The Hght-tan coloration differs, however, from the 

 medium gray manifest in H. torquata from limestone areas in southern 

 New Mexico. Both UNMCV 79 and CU 5067 have continuous neck 

 bands, a feature found in three of seven specimens at hand from 

 southern New Mexico. A complete band is presumably less frequent 

 in H. torquata texana than inH. t. loreala or H. t. ochrorhyncha (Tanner, 

 1944). 



The single Zuni specimen was taken beneath a tan sandstone slab 

 (Wingate) near the lower edge of the pinyon-juniper association at 

 6800 feet. Large boulders, steep-sided canyons, and such reptiles as 

 Urosaurus ornatus and Crotaphytus collaris typified the terrain. 

 Another individual was seen in a nearly identical situation at 7200 

 feet, two miles south of Thoreau, McKinley County, but escaped into 

 a deep crevice. 



Locality records: 



MCKINLEY CO.: 3 ini. NE. Thoreau (CU 5067). 



Comparative material examined: 



H. torquata subspecies. — New Mexico: Valencia co.: Los Lunas (USNM 

 107347) ; san juan co.: Chaco Canyon Nat. Mon. (UNMCV 79) ; eddy co.: Carls- 

 bad Caverns Nat. Park (UMMZ 86163, 121785; CCNP 2409, 2416); catron co. : 

 1 mi. N. Glenwood (UNMZ 78231); 13 mi. SE. Glenwood (UMMZ) 78232-33). 



Crotalus atrox Baird and Girard 



A characteristic member of southwestern desert and desert-grassland 

 herpetofaunas, C. atrox is another species that probably reaches the 

 northwestern limit of its New Mexico range in the Zuni region. Here 

 it is found only in open plains situations but may range into the 

 Plains-Roughlands continuum. Ecological restriction to the cholla- 

 juniper association was observed south of Grants, where diamondback 

 rattlers were found between the lava flow and edges of surrounding 

 uplands. This snake was absent from the high soil-covered malpais 

 near El Morro National Monument, where C. viridis was abundant; 

 a similar situation was observed on the rough Grants malpais. A 

 large adult, collected by William L. Chenoweth on October 17, 1957, 

 was dead on the road in the short-grass association near Prewitt, when 

 the air temperature was about 55° F. 



Yarrow (1875, p. 529) first recorded C. adamanteus atrox from Ft. 

 Wmgate; Cope (1900, p. 1163) and VanDenburgh (1924, p. 227) 

 mentioned this locality, the latter placing it in McKinley County. 

 While diamondback rattlers occur in southeastern McKinley County, 



