644 ANIMAL LIFE IN THE YOSEMITE 



This is due in part to the fact that the gopher snake tends to grow to a 

 large size and also to the fact that the rattlers are killed whenever found, 

 w^hile some at least of the gopher snakes are protected by the farmers of 

 the country and so reach greater age. Gopher snakes elsewhere often grow 

 to a length of 5 feet or even more and have a normal body girth in the 

 neighborhood of 6 inches; but the largest individual which we chanced 

 to encounter within the Yosemite region was 1025 millimeters (40^ 

 inches) long. The average length of all those handled by us was 32 inches. 



The Valley Gopher Snake is a distinctive species as regards its color- 

 ation (pi. 59a.), being approached as to pattern only by the rattlesnake 

 and by very young racers. The ground color is ocher yellow. Down the 

 middle of the back there is a row of hexagonal or squarish blotches of dark 

 brown which toward the end of the tail become black. Along each side of 

 the body are rows of smaller spots usually blackish in color. The rattle- 

 snake's pattern consists usually of very large blotches, each with a light 

 margin, and it does not have so many side spots. The young racers are 

 more spotted than the gopher snakes and of course they may be told from 

 young gopher snakes at once by their smooth scales, those of the latter 

 species, no matter what the age, always being ridged or keeled. 



Generally speaking, the gopher snake is a rather quiet, even a lethargic 

 species. When come upon on the ground in a field it will often lie per- 

 fectly quiet and thereby escape detection; there is no movement to catch 

 the eye. Its usual color pattern is very close to that of the dry grassland 

 in which it lives so much of the time. If aroused it can, and if unhindered 

 will, make off with fair rapidity. But if cornered a gopher snake will show 

 fight, coiling its body up and drawing back and spreading its head until 

 the latter has the triangular outline often considered (though erroneously 

 so) the mark of a poisonous species. Then it will usually fill its lungs with 

 air, swell its body out considerably and suddenly lunge at its enemy, 

 expelling the air with a hissing sound as it does so. This 'bluff' is often 

 effective and gives the snake a chance to make good its escape. A curious 

 habit of some individual gopher snakes is to vibrate rapidly the slender 

 tip of the tail, whereby if the animal happens to be in dry grass or weeds 

 a rattling sound is produced, suggestive of the rattle of a rattlesnake. 

 This might, on occasion, serve the purpose of warning a potential enemy. 

 But, of course, the Gopher Snake is not at all venomous. 



Gopher snakes may often be seen around the burrows of earth-dwelling 

 rodents such as the ground squirrels and pocket gophers, and the snakes 

 subsist to a considerable extent upon these animals. The snakes are able 

 to pursue the rodents underground and thus have an advantage over the 

 large carnivorous mammals and birds which must either catch the squirrels 

 and gophers above ground or else, as do most of the mammals except the 

 weasel, dig them out. 



