110 



bon snake, E. sanrifa, are deposited in the loose sandy soil of the recently 

 plowed fields. He has found none earUer than May ; and once he found 

 a complement of seventeen within a day or two of hatching. He farther 

 states that he has never come across a young snake less than four inches in 

 length, except in the case of the hog nosed snake Heterodon platirhinos. I 

 am convinced that there is some error of observation here. I shall present 

 evidence that the species of Eutainia bring forth living young, and that too 

 rather late in the summer and in autumn. It seems improbable that a 

 snake should usually be ovoviviparous, and again, at rare times, should lay 

 eggs furnished with coverings suitable for protecting the developing em- 

 bryos. If, notwithstanding all this, the Eutainias do lay spring eggs, I shall 

 be extremely glad to receive a batch of them. 



Dr. H. C. Bumpus, in his interesting account of the snakes,* says that the 

 eggs of Eutainia sirtalis and of E. sauriia are sometimes found about out- 

 buildings, and in hatching give birth to little fellows having enormous 

 eyes and a spotted body, the longitudinal bands of the adults only being 

 gained after several sloughings of the skin. The source of the information 

 here detailed is not given; but almost certainly the eggs of some other spe- 

 cies have been mistaken for those of Eutainia. Young of both the species, 

 especially those of saurifa, taken by myself from the oviducts of the female 

 and with a considerable portion of the yolk still unabsorbed, have the 

 stripes perfectly distinct. 



As to E. sirtali><, Prof. F. AV. Putnam t states that a female taken July 22, 

 contained forty-two nearly developed young. Each of these was 5^ inches 

 long. The mother snake was 35 inches long. Dr. J. Schneck, of Mt. Car- 

 mel. 111., writes + that seventy-eight were taken from a female. He implies 

 that he saw this done. C. Few Seiss says? that the sexes of this species 

 copulate in early spring and produce from thirteen to eighty young. That 

 he has seen the latter number from a single snake he does not say. Drs. 

 Coues and Yarrow refer j! to the habits of Eutainia sirtalis parietalis, as ob- 

 served by them in Montana during the month of August. "At this sea- 

 son all the female individuals observed were gravid with nearly matured 

 embryos. Like others of the genus, this species is ovoviviparous, the 

 young being some 6 inches in length when born." In a specimen of E. 



■' Riverside Natural History, Vol. Ill, p. 371. 



t Amer. Nat., Vol. II, p. 134. 



t Amer. Nat., Vol. XVI, p. 1008. 



f. Scientific Amer., Vol. LXIII, p. 105. 



11 Bulletins U. S. Geol. & Geo. Survey, Vol. IV. p. 27 



