AMPHIBIA AND REPTILIA OF COLORADO 89 



ground color, in some specimens so interrupted as to cease to be a 

 stripe at all. A lateral stripe of yellowish or bluish color, covering 

 the second and third rows of scales, often very indistinct and so inter- 

 rupted as to be scarcely recognizable. Between the dorsal and lateral 

 stripes two rows of black spots, which by alternation with patches of 

 the ground color produce a tessellated pattern. These spots may be 

 quite prominent and the pattern very distinct or they may be scarcely 

 distinguishable from the general ground color. Two small pale 

 yellow spots near or on the mesial margin of the parietal plates more 

 or less surrounded by a cloud of black. Top of the head dark, labials 

 green. Ventrals greenish varying from yellow to gray, each with a 

 dark bar or cloud at its junction with the first row of scales, mesial 

 portion often clouded with black or blue. 



The form of this highly variable species found most abundantly 

 in Colorado is that of greenish color and indistinct pattern called 

 variety vagrans. The food and habits of Thamnophis elegans are 

 much the same as described for the other Colorado garter snakes. 

 Mr. H. G. Smith, of the State Historical and Natural History Museum, 

 told us that the 640 mm. female of this species which he collected at 

 Dolores, Colo., June 27, 1890, gave birth to ten young shortly after 

 her capture. The smallest of these was 190 mm. in length. One of 

 the specimens, No. 61, disgorged a frog, Rana pipiens, when captured. 



The range of this species is from the foothills on the east side of the 

 Rocky Mountains to the western slope of the Sierra Nevada and 

 Cascade mountains, north to Canada and south into New Mexico 

 and Arizona. It is a species of the high plateau and mountain regions. 



Colorado specimens. — University Museum: Buford, August 23, 1904 (2 

 specimens, 570 and 620 mm.), J. Henderson, No. 48; Copeland Park, Boulder 

 County, September 5, 1907 (2 specimens, 580 and 600 mm.), F. Rohwer, No. 237; 

 Allen's Park, Boulder County, September 6, 1907 (690 mm.), S. A. Rohwer, No. 

 242; Meeker, August 9, 1909 (500 mm.), A. H. Felger, No. 65; Curtis Reservoir, 

 seven miles northeast of Meeker, August 12, 1909 (2 specimens, 270 and 640 mm.), 

 A. H. Felger, No. 61 ; three miles south of Axial, August 14, 1909 (300 mm.), A. H. 

 Felger, No. 60; Snake Slough, three miles above Meeker, August 17, 1909 

 (400 mm.), J. Henderson and T. Duce, No. 62; Buford, August 20, 1909 (280 mm.), 

 T. Duce, No. 47; Buford, August 23, 1909 (825 mm.), A. H. Felger, No. 46; 



