^•>;'. 



0. The blue raeer, Bascauion constrictor (I.) is the largest snake in 

 this locality, and is comparatively abimdant. When captured and put 

 in a pen. it soon tames and seems to take delight in being handled. Its 

 movements and shape are peculiarly graceful. Its food consists of frogs, 

 garter snakes, etc. A specimen forty-two inches long swallowed a gar- 

 ter snake twenty-eight inches long. I have known it to lay its eggs about 

 tlie middle of June, and have found the young hatching about the middle 

 of September. Its egg-laying habit is worthy of note. One specimen se- 

 lected the soft ground between two rows of potatoes and pushed her way 

 under the ground. As she crawled along in this undergrouud passage, 

 the eggs, twenty-two in number, were laid in the channel which her body 

 had made. Another laid her eggs in the hollow root of a lialf decayed 

 stump. The eggs are v\-hite in color, and about one inch in length, 

 and have a uniform diameter of one-half inch. Tlie soft shell is so tough 

 that it will sustain a weight of more than one hundred pounds without 

 breaking. The young, when first hatched, are seven or eight inches in 

 length. The first action when the little head is thrust through the shell 

 is to stick out its tougue. The blue racer frequents the woods or high 

 grass and weeds. 



7. Lampropeltis doliatus triangulus (Boiel is found rarely. 



S. Sistrurus cateuatus (Rafinesque) is second in point of numbers. 

 The garter snake is more plentiful than the prairie-rattler. During the 

 summer of 1S99 eleven specimens were caught, and nine were taken dur- 

 ing the following summer. They are usually found in Ioav land and run 

 but little during the day unless disturbed. Nothing was learned concern- 

 ing their food, since they persistently refused to eat when kept in confine- 

 ment. A female kept in a pen gave birth to seven young on August 13. 

 Several of the little ones were kept in a glass aquarium for a time. On 

 August 17 they drank drops of water from a pipette and ate a few small 

 bits of fresh meat. Three days later they began their first moult. They 

 were about eight and one-half inches long at birth. A case was reported 

 to me in which thirteen young were born. The adults are inoffensive and 

 move slowly. They are easily captured by means of a noose slipped over 

 their heads or by an insect net. - 



