VARIATIONS OF GARTER-SNAKES. 145 



California and east central Oregon and Washington. At first sight 

 the localities in which two preoculars occur seem to represent an 

 isolated region, but, as will be shown later, I believe that the trait 

 outcrops all along the western lioundary of the range (in the Sierra 

 Nevada-Cascade range) from the southern limit in the mountains of 

 southern California to the northern limit in British Columbia. 



EJegans is c|uite constant in coloration over most of its range. 

 The following description holds for most of the specimens east of 

 the Sierra Nevadas: Ground color light brownish olive, relieved by 

 two rows of rather small black lateral spots that usually occupy 

 only the edge of the scales ; stripes yellow, tinged with orange or green, 

 the laterals upon the second and third rows and frequently nearly 

 indistinguishable from the first row of scales which is lighter than 

 those above, the dorsal u})on the median and more or less of the 

 adjacent rows being nearly always encroached upon to the median 

 row by the superior row of lateral spots; narrow bars at the base of the 

 ventral scutes that may or may not be enlarged at the ends to form small 

 spots and in the middle to make an irregular median ventral band. 



In the Sierra Nevada-Cascade range the color tends to become 

 generally darker, although the pattern of eastern specimens is 

 retained. Such individuals have been distinguished by Cope (1892, 

 654-655) as lineolata and hrunnea, but an examination of the types 

 as well as many other specimens from the same region shows that 

 they differ in no way from typical elegans except in the darker ground 

 color, which obscures the lateral spots on the scales. In his descrip- 

 tion Cope states that in the type of hrunnea there is not the least 

 trace of lateral spots. This is not true, as they are easily seen on the 

 skin when it is stretched. Specimens do occur on the west slope of 

 the wSierras, however, in which the spots are mostly fused on the 

 skin. This dark color is frec^uently accompanied by an increase in the 

 width of the dorsal stripe, a tendency which in elegans occurs only in 

 this region, but, as I shall show later, becomes of general occurrence 

 to the westward. Such a specimen was described as eZegrans by Baird 

 and Girard in 1853, but that the combination of characters can not be 

 distinguished even as a subspecies is c^uite evident, as all intermediate 

 stages occur between it and the dark (lineolata or hrunnea) specimens 

 of elegans in the Sierra Nevadas, while the scutellation is identical." 



Occasionally the dorsal stripe is nearly or quite obsolete, as in 

 liammondi. Such a specimen was described by Kennicott as E. couchi. 

 Some writers have considered these specimens identical with ham- 

 mondi, but all variations in the width of the dorsal stripe occur, and 

 it is evident that its total or partial obliteration is merely a variation. 



a It is true that Baird and Girard gave the'number of dorsal rows of the type speci- 

 men of elegans as 19, but these were evidently counted on the anterior part of the 

 body alone, for the formula is 19-21-19-17, as in many specimens of elegans (vagrans). 



