134 REPTILES AND BATRACHIANS 



grass is long, feeding principally on fish, frogs, and toads ; 

 some individuals are insectivorous as w^ell. Mr. J. L. 

 Wortman has related how^ one day, in Canada, he was 

 fishing and caught a number of chub, and, throwing them 

 on the sand behind him, was surprised to see, some minutes 

 later, when he turned round, that only a few remained. 

 While quietly continuing to replace those so singularly 

 missing he observed, behind him, a very large Garter 

 Snake seize and swallow one of the fish six inches long. 

 He killed the snake, and, upon opening it, found that it 

 contained as many as six fishes. 



Like all the American members of its genus, the Garter 

 Snake is viviparous, bringing forth, late in the summer, a 

 remarkably large number of young, usually about fifty to 

 a brood ; over seventy, however, is not exceptional, while 

 broods of eighty have been recorded on more than one 

 occasion. 



The Banded Snake, T. fasciatus, sometimes called 

 Moccasin Snake, a name, however, which belongs to the 

 viper Ancistrodon piscivorus, with which it is often con- 

 founded, is the American representative of T. piscator, 

 like it spending most of its life in the water, preying upon 

 frogs and fish. The coloration is usually dark brown, with 

 irregular oblong or triangular reddish spots on the flanks. 

 In old animals these spots become obsolete, the whole 

 surface becoming of a brownish colour. The scales are 

 in twenty-three or twenty-five rows. As in the case of 

 the Garter Snake, numerous geographical varieties exist, 

 of which the variety rhombifor, of New Orleans and 

 Mexico, and the variety sepedon, of Pennsylvania, are the 

 most distinct. In the former the coloration is pale brown. 



