134 



EXPLANATION OF THE FOOD DIAGRAMS. 



The Food Diagrams and Tables in this Bulletin express the results 

 of GUP dissections of all specimens collected or sent us prior to Au- 

 gust I, 1906, and are, of course, reliable as far as they go. The 

 greatest criticism on them is that we have not been able to study 

 enough specimens to get all the facts of the case for each species. 

 "We shall continue these studies from each specimen sent us, and 

 in ihe Second Eeport, which will be issued just as soon as we have 

 i^pough specimens to justify it, there will be new charts and tables 

 showing the newly derived facts. 



Each chart or circle represents the total number of serpents 

 containing food, as 100 per cent., and each division of the circle 

 represents the per cent, or relative number of the specimens of the 

 respective species which we found had eaten the food material 

 expressed in that division. Sometimes one serpent contained sev- 

 eral articles of food, and most of them contained two or more. 

 These facts had to bd- considered in making out the charts, and it 

 became quite complex. The bulk or relative amount of food of 

 each kind taken by the reptiles is not shown in these charts, as 

 each division stands for the relative number of this species of ser- 

 pents examined which contained each food item, respectively. 



DISCUSSION BY SPECIES. 



No. 1. Oarphophiops amwnus. (Say.) Groind Seake. Plate* XVI, 



XXX, Fig. b. 



This rare little snake is known by the various common names of 

 Ground Snake, Red Snake and Worm Snake. It is to be distin 

 guished by the smooth scales on the back (Plate XIV), arranged in 

 thirteen rows, and the ventral plates (Plates XIV and XV), about 

 one hundred and thirty in number, the bifid or divided anal plate 

 (IMates XIV and XV) glossy brown color, small head, absence of 

 constriction on neck, and salmon-red color beneath. 



It is found in the United States from Massachusetts to Illinois 

 and southward, although it is not a common species. In this State 

 it must be very rare, because we have before us only one Pennsyl- 

 vanian specimen, and that was collected in Huntingdon county, Pa., 

 under a stone, by Mr. P. H. Hertzog, July, 1903. Dr. Witnier Stone, 

 in the American Naturalist, Vol. XL, No. 471, Mar., 1906, states 

 that there are specimens of C. Amamus in the collection of the 

 Academy of Natural Sciences from Chester and York counties, Pa. 



There is very little known about its haunts or habils, beyond the 

 fact that it is a burrowing snake and is found in loose soil and iindei* 

 leaves, etc. It is ])robably one of the egg-laying species, reproduc- 

 ing by laying eggs, and it no doubt feeds during its entire life mostly 



