356 



PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL 2IUSEUM. 



human species this is particularly noticeable, the female remaining 

 nearer the infantile and generalized type than the male. 



When the influence of sex is examined for T. ordinoides, it is found 

 that the opposite condition prevails. The following list shows that 

 a greater number of variations occur among the female specimens : 



VARIATION IN COI;OR. 



In the young the ground color is almost invariably a dark olive; 

 the dorsal and lateral rows of spots are large, regular, and sharply 

 defined; the median stripe is pale yellow; the underside is greenish 

 grey; no specimens are seen with even a trace of red. 



In the adults the ground color varies in different examples, there 

 being many hues of dull brick red, olive brown, and dark olive; the 

 dorsal and lateral spots are clearly marked, in some the dorsal series 

 is partly fused; the median stripe is sharply defined, varying from 

 pale yellow to dark orange, and when of the latter color it is at times 

 dotted with salmon; the lateral stripe is yellowish or greenish grey, 

 in some this line is also dotted with salmon; the underside is usually 

 a uniform bluish or greenish grey, and in a few specimens there are a 

 few irregular reddish spots. 



The most striking chromatic character in this set is the absence of 

 any examples having the striped pattern, those in which the ground 

 color is a solid dark brown, without spots or red, and with the median 

 and lateral stripes bright and sharply defined. In having but the 

 one color pattern this set from Golden Gate Park is distinctive. 

 Series from over a score of different locahties have been studied and 

 each^et regularly contained from two to three separate designs. 



FOOD. 



The food was found to consist almost entirely of slugs, of the family 

 Arionidse. Two of the largest snakes had eaten small rodents, and 

 several had remains of salamanders, Batrachoseps , and Autodax in 

 the stomach. 



The garden slugs in and about San Francisco are abundant and are 

 most destructive to small and tender cultivated plants. As the Bay 

 Region has not proved favorable for the establishing of toad colonies, 



