NO. 2179. 



VARIATION IN GARTER SNAKES— THOMPSON. 



355 



Tabulated summary. 



For the sake of clearness the normal records are indicated by dashes. 



This table brings to light an interesting condition: Specimens that 

 have the normal scale row count of 19-21-19-17 are prone to be 

 normal in the remaining characters in that only 33 per cent of them 

 present any variations; on the other hand, in those having an abnor- 

 mal scale row count 66 per cent, possess other variations from the 

 normal. This is an analogous condition to that shown in the study 

 of degenerates among the human species. Individuals are much 

 more Uable to have several stigmata than but a single earmark of 

 faulty heredity. 



INFLUENCE OF SEX ON VARIATION. 



In zoology it is a fairly weU established point that in a given species 

 the range of variation is regularly greater in a series of males than in 

 a series of female specimens. In the anthropoid apes and in the 



