848 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1898. 



Dr. Stejneger adds the following note in the same publication:* 



I am able to state that Coluber obsoletua obsoleiiis is oviparous. Mr. Thomas Mar- 

 ron, of the National Museum, early in April, 1889, collected a number of snake eggs 

 in a hollow stump near the Potomac River. They were opened and fouud to contain 

 fully developed young of this species. (Cat. No. 1.5334, U.S.N.M.) 



Prof. O. P. Hay - gives the following further account of the habits of 

 this species: 



Coluher obsoletiis spends its time in hiding about hollow logs and in holes about 

 standing trees. It often ascends trees in search of birds and their young. Mr. A. W. 

 Butler, of Brookville, Indiana, says they are the most destructive to birds of all our 

 snakes. Besides birds, they no doubt prey on mice, rats, rabbits, and other small 

 animals. The disposition of this serpent is gentle, and it makes little resistance 

 when surprised and seized by head and tail. It will open its mouth in an attempt 

 to bite, but struggles little. Under such circumstances a Racer would make a lively 

 disturbance. One put into a box with a mouse would strike at the latter whenever 

 it showed too much familiarity, but it was not harmed. In the stomach of one indi- 

 vidual I found a number of young mice ; in another were two old and six young mice. 



This species probably reaches a greater size than any other snake that we have. 

 Mr. Robert Ridgway tells me that he killed oue at Mount Carmel, Illinois, which 

 he estimated to be over 9 feet long. It made no resistance when attacked, and was 

 as easily killed as an ordinary snake 2 or 3 feet long. This species has the habit, 

 common to many snakes, of vibrating its tail so as to make a rattling or whirring 

 sound. This probably serves to warn the larger animals of its presence so that they 

 may avoid it. 



Dr. G. B. Goode includes this snake among those which are said to "swallow" 

 their young; that is, when danger threatens they open their mouths in order to 

 allow the young to pass down the mother's throat for safety. More observations 

 need to be made on this point. 



I have been able to lind in print no observatious on the breeding habits of this 

 snake. When and where are the eggs laid? How many of these are there f How 

 soon do they hatch? These are a few of the things that many a farmer's boy might 

 be able to find out for ns. Two individuals were taken at Fall Creek, Marion County, 

 while in sexual union. This was on June 19. The male was 5 feet 3 inches long; 

 the female was 6 feet 3 inches. The female contained sixteen eggs. They have a 

 thick covering and must be laid before hatching. Professor Blatchley writes' 

 that he kept one, 5 feet 7 inches long, for some time in continement. It would on 

 being disturbed vibrate its tail in such a way as to make a rattling sound. When 

 the room was entered at night with a lamp the snake would hiss with a loud, gurgling 

 noise. A large horned owl kept in the same room was attacked by tb.e snake, tightly 

 enveloped in its coils, and so badly crushed that it soon died. 



Maximilian ^ has confirmed the popular notion that the snake will eat fowls' eggs. 

 One entered his room, climbed to a vessel of eggs, and swallowed a number of 

 them. After the eggs had passed down the throat the shells were crushed by a pow- 

 erful constriction of the walls of the stomach. 



The relative sluggishness of this snake probably accounts for its 

 rarity as conii)ared with the black racer (Z. constrictor) in the more 

 settled portions of the United States. 



' Proc. Ind. Acad. Sci., 1891, p. 119 ; Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., XV, 1892, p. 396. 

 ^Batrachians and Reptiles of Indiana, Seventeenth Ann. Rept. State Geol. Indiana, 

 1892, p. 502. 



' Jour. Cin. Acad. Nat. Hist., 1891, p. 31. 

 ■* Verzeichniss Rept., 1865, p. xxxii. 



