115 



saying that it seeks the most retired woods for its residence. Its food 

 consists of insects, frogs, toads, and similar small animals. Of its breed- 

 ing habits not much is known. In a specimen taken in Mississippi I 

 find nine eggs with the development just begun. Professor F. W. 

 Putnam {22, ii, 134) says that a female that he examined on July 13 

 contained nine eggs, each three-fourths inch long. In these he found 

 embryos 2.5 inches long. On July 30 another was caught which had 

 •excluded a part of her brood, there being only four eggs left, and 

 these were ready to be burst by the young. These eggs were 1.25 

 inches long, and contained young 5.5 inches. Professor G. B. Goode 

 {34-, '73, 182) received the following from Herman Strecker, of Reading, 

 Pa.: "Some years ago I came across a garter snake (Eutainia saurita) 

 with some young ones near her. Soon as she perceived me she hissed 

 and the young ones jumped down her throat, and she glided beneath a 

 stone heap. Another time I caught a snake of the same species, but, as 

 I thought, of immense size, which I took home and put in a cage. On 

 going to look at her, some short time afterward, I discovered a great 

 number of young ones (about thirty, if I recollect rightly), and whilst I 

 was still looking at the sudden increase two more crept out of the old 

 one's mouth, and finally, after a little while, a third one did likewise." 

 Within the body of a specimen of fairyei, 28 inches long, sent me from 

 Fountain County by Mr. C. H. Smith, I find twelve eggs. Of these the 

 hinder four are in the left oviduct. The eggs show no evidences that 

 development had begun. The length of each is about .75 inch, the 

 short diameter about .32 inch. The form is irregular on account of 

 mutual pressure. In a specimen taken at Vicksburg, Miss., about July 

 4, I find twenty fully developed young snakes. Each is about 9 inches 

 long. 



Eutainia radix, B. & G. 

 Racine Garter Snake. 



Eutainia radix, Baird and Girard, 1853, 6, 34; Eatcenia radix, Coues 

 and Yarrow, 1878, 9, iv., 277; Entwnia radix melanotcenia, Cope, 1888, 

 3, xi, 400. 



A snake of moderately stout form, the tail forming from a fifth to a 

 fourth the total length. Head distinctly marked off from the neck. 

 Upper labials seven (rarely eight), the eye over the third and fourth. 

 Lower labials ten, the sixth largest. Auteorbitals one, postorbitals 

 three. The scales are in either nineteen or twenty-one rows. They are 

 prominently keeled, so that the snake is distinctly rough in appearance. 

 "The ventral plates vary from 153 to 162 ; the subcaudals from 51 to 80. 



Color above light or dark olive-brown, witli three stripes of yellow and 



