1072 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1898. 



Few Seiss says ' that the aexes of this .species copulate in early spring and produce 

 from thirteen to eighty young. That he has seen the latter from a single snake he 

 does not say. Drs. Cones and Yarrow refer- to the habits of Eutwnia airtalis parie- 

 talin as observed by them in Montana during the month of August. " At this 8ea.son 

 ofthe year all the female individuals observed were gravid with nearly matured 

 embryos. Like others ofthe genus, this species is ovoviviparous, the young being 

 6 inches in length when born." In a specimen of E. s. sirtalis (No. 17960, U.S.N.M.), 

 captured near the city of Indianapolis by Dr. Alex. .Jameson about August 1, I 

 find thirty-nine partially developed young. Of these, twenty-five are in the right 

 uterus. The young measures 6 inches in length. There is a considerable amount of 

 yolk still remaining attached to these young, a fact which indicates that they will 

 increase in size before birth. An examination of the mouth of some of these little 

 snakes shows that the egg-tooth is present. The membrane which surrounds each 

 egg is quite thin. The female bearing this lot of young is 33 inches in length. 

 Another female (No. 17961, U.S.N.M.), from Paris, Illinois, of nearly the same 

 size, contained about thirty-five young snakes, these being packed together so 

 densely in the mother's body that it was difficult to determine the number accu- 

 rately without removing them. They are each 7 incihes long, and are evidently just 

 ready to be expelled. An examination of about half a dozen of them failed to ^eveal 

 the presence of the egg-tooth, which has therefore been shed. Nor could I deter- 

 mine with certainty that any egg-covering was present. The yolk of the egg, also, 

 is wholly consumed. On opening these young snakes I find little or none of the 

 yolk within the body. In this respect they contrast strongly with the young ofthe 

 rattlesnakes. The young garter snakes must from the first depend on their own 

 activities for support. This accords well with the report of Mr. C. Few Seiss, that 

 the young of a female kept in confinement began to feed shortly after birth, strug- 

 gling vigorously with one another for the earthworms thrown them. At what time 

 during the summer the Paris, Illinois, specimen was captured I do not know. 

 Seiss's statement that the sexes of E. s. sirtalis pair in the early spring has already 

 been mentioned. 



Prof. F. W, Putnam'' informs us that on .July 1, in a female 35 inches long he 

 found forty-two nearly developed young, each of which was 5. .5 inches long. Ijr. J. 

 Schneck, of Mount Carmel, Illinois, says ■* that from a female 35 inches long he took 

 seventy-eight young from 3 to 7 inches in length. They were pressed from the vent. 

 The first twenty were free, the others confined within the egg coverings. A female 

 from Paris, Illinois, contained thirty-five young, each 7 inches long. The food-yolk 

 was all gone and the egg-tooth shed. It appears that the young are born late in the 

 summer or early in the fall. The sexes are said to unite in September or in October, 

 but it seems probable that this also occurs early in the spring. This is one of the 

 snakes which has the reputation of swallowing its young when they are in peril. 

 Col. N. Pike, who is an accurate observer, assured Dr. Goode"" that he had seen the 

 garter snake afford its young family temporary protection in its throat, from which 

 they were soon noticed to emerge. 



On the approach of cold weather these snakes seek some opening in the earth and 

 then become dormant. In some instances thej^ appear to collect in considerable 

 numbers where they pass their winter slumber. We thus occasionally hear of 

 bundles of snakes being plowed up. E. L. Ellicott relates'" having seen very early 

 in the spring, in Maryland, a bundle of garter snakes in which some hundreds of 

 them could bo counted. It is altogether probable that such assemblages are deter- 

 mined partly by the sexual impulses. The garter snake leaves its place of hiberna- 

 tion apparently as soon as the first warm days come, although they may relapse 

 again into the dormant condition. At Irvington I have taken them as early as the 

 7th of March. 



'Scientific American, LXIII, p. 105. 'American Naturalist, XVI, i^. 1008. 



-Bull. U. S. Geol. and Ceog. Surv.. IV, j). 277. '' Proc. Amer. Assoc. Sci., 187.3, p. 182. 

 "American Naturalist, II, p. 1.34. '■ American Naturalist, XIV, p. 206, 



