448 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1893. 



Eattlesiiake is equally at home iu the foothills aud on the higher slopes 

 of the Sierra Nevada, at least up to an altitude of 8,600 feet above the 

 level of tbe sea. In the lower cultivated country it is rapidly becoming 

 extinct in some places, while on the other hand there are records of its 

 increase in other localities, Dr. Behr (Proc. Calif. Acad. Sc. (2), i, 1888, 

 p. 94) has called attention to this curious circumstance with regard to 

 its occurrence in various localities around San Francisco Bay. Our 

 records for northern California are less complete, but it is undoubtedly 

 equally widely distributed in all suitable localities, though probably not 

 so high up in the mountains. Townsend (Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., x, 1887, 

 p. 230) found it ''pretty generally distributed, but more numerous in the 

 foothills of Shasta County than elsewhere. Very few snakes were met 

 with in the elevated coniferous forests, aud none high up on the mouu- 

 tahis." In Oregon and Washington this species is still common ini)hu'es. 

 In the early days of these states Dr. Suckley (Pac. E. R. Rep., xii, Pt. iii, 

 p. 295) found them to be so numerous at the Dalles as to be very annoy- 

 ing, having been known to enter dwelling houses. Dr. Cooper (/. c.) 

 states that they are much less numerous north of the Columbia River 

 than south, and also that none are found west of the Cascade Range, 

 except an occasional straggler carried down the Columbia River. How- 

 ever that may be in Washington, it certainly does not hold for Oregon, as 

 the National Museum possesses a specimen from Fort [Jmi)qua (No. 

 4234). Lord (Naturalist in Vancouver Island, 1860, p. 303) says that at 

 the Dalles, the Snake, Pelouse, and Spokane rivers, indeed along the 

 entire bimndary line between the British Possessions and the United 

 States west of the continental divide, and high up in the Rocky Moun- 

 tains " its name is legion.'''' The exact northern boundary of the species 

 in British Columbia is not recorded, but Mr. James M. Macoun, of the 

 Geological Survey of Canada, writes me that it is confined to a small 

 area in the interior of British Columbia, bounded on the west by Lytton, 

 on the North Thompson River, being found in that latitude as far east 

 as Shuswap Lake. The farthest eastern record is about 10 miles east 

 of Okanagan Lake, in the vicinity of which they are very abundant. 



This species evidently follows up the tributaries of the Columbia into 

 the interior, for a number of specimens were collected in Idaho, at Big 

 Butte aud Little Lost River, by parties of Dr. Merriam's Idaho explora- 

 tion party (N. Am. Fauna, No. 5, 1891, p. 111). 



Whether the distribution of this species into Nevada is continuous to 

 the north with the Oregon and Idaho localities remains yet to be seen, 

 though it seems probable. It is also continuous into the eastern por- 

 tion of northern California. Robert Ridgway, during King's explo- 

 ration of the fortieth parallel, found it excessively abundant on the 

 little island in the Pyramid Lake, and also collected it at the Truckee 

 River, and later explorers have also recorded it as common from that 

 neighborhood. Farther east it has been obtained in Nevada and Utah 

 by the various Government exploring parties at altitudes of 5,000 feet 



