398 



KANSAS UNIVERSITY SCIENCE BULLETIN. 



Fig. 22. 

 Ophibolas getulus sayi Holb. 



Dorsal scales black, each with a basal or central spot of 

 pearly white or yellow. On the sides the spots occupy more 

 than half of the scale. In young specimens the spots are ag- 

 gregated on adjacent scales and from cross-bands. This marking 

 often persists in the adult snake. Beneath yellowish white 

 with large black blotches, smaller and more numerous poste- 

 riorly. Upper labials yellow, black at their junction. Each 

 plate on the sides and top of the head has a white or yellow 

 spot. Rostral yellowish with a black border at the top. 



Ophiholus getvlus my! is called King Snake because of its 

 aggressiveness. It is an enemy of all other snakes. It attacks 

 and swallows Rattlesnakes and Copperheads. One kept in 

 one of the laboratories at Kansas University attacked and 

 partially swallowed a Garter Snake nearly as large as itself. 

 The snakes were killed in this position and are preserved in the 

 University museum. The King Snake may be handled with 

 perfect safety. It seldom if ever bites and it shows no fear. 



It occurs throughout the state but is not numerous any- 

 where. It has been reported from Mitchell, Republic, Mont- 

 gomery, Miami, Greenwood, Pottawatomie, Franklin, Lyon, 

 Shawnee, Sumner, Riley, Scott, Logan and Gove counties. 



Ophibolus doliatus Linnteus. 



Milk .Snake, H4)uso Snake, Chicken Snake. 

 Coluber doliatuti Linnreus, Syst. Nat., I, 1776, p. ,379. 

 Osceola doliata Cope, Trans. Amer. Phil. Soc, 1895, p. 215. 



Scales in twenty-one rows, occasionally twenty-three or nine- 



