VARIATIONS OF GARTER-SNAKES. 179 



came together again. The quickness and completeness with which 

 the httle snakes disappear when alarmed may partly explain the 

 fable that this snake swallows its young. 



Ditmars (1907, 235-236) gives the following interesting account of 

 the hibernating habits: 



The favorite situations in which to pass the cold months are in soft soil on a slope 

 that faces the south. Here the reptiles burrow down a yard or more. Rocky situa- 

 tions are often selected, and among the clefts and fissures, one opening into another, 

 the snakes are enabled to retire to a considerable depth from the surface. 



It is in the fall that these snakes congregate in large numbers on ground that is 

 suitable for the winter's sleep. Here they sun themselves during the middle of the 

 day, retiring into clefts and burrows during chilly autumn nights. As the nights 

 become colder, their l)asking periods during the day are shortened, and finally, after 

 the first severe frost, they remain l^elow the ground for the winter. Instinct seemingly 

 attracts them to these places of hibernation, for such spots are usually poor feeding 

 grounds and have been devoid of snakes during the summer months. In spring, the 

 breeding time, the reptiles remain in numbers until the weather has become well 

 settled and the danger of needing good shelter from the cold spells has passed. Then 

 they scatter into the ravines, the thickets, along streams and brooks, until the scene 

 that has abounded with sinuous, crawling life is deserted. 



This account harmonizes very w^ell with the writer's observations 

 in southern Michigan. In the latter region they are found in the 

 autumn on sunny hillsides in the immediate neighborhood of holes, 

 into w^hich they hasten when alarmed, but that they dig these holes 

 themselves yet remains to be proven, nor after the beginning of the period 

 of hibernation do they necessarily ''remain below the ground for the 

 winter," for if periods of marked moderation in the temperature occur 

 they will come out in December, January, or February. Thus, on 

 January 22, 1906, which was a warm day (60° F.) in a period of 

 very moderate temperature, a collector for the University of Michi- 

 gan Museum reported seeing a large garter-snake near Grass Lake, 

 Washtenaw County, Michigan, which was undoubtedly this species. 



Range. — This form is practically confined to the eastern wooded 

 district of North America. Thus, its range on all four sides is rather 

 definitely bounded — on the south by the Gulf, on the east by the 

 Atlantic, on the north by its ability to endure low temperatures, and 

 on the west by the margin of the prairie (fig. 78). 



Specimens have been examined from the following localities: Lac 

 Aux Sables, Quebec; Auburn, Aroostook County, Androscoggin, 

 Maine; Wellesley, Marthas Vineyard, Woods Hole, No Mans Land, 

 Tuckermuck, Gloucester, Boston, Cohasset, Arlington, Cambridge, 

 Massachusetts; Conanicut Island, Dutch Island, Chepachet Island, 

 Newport, Rhode Island; Falmouth, Bartlett, New Hampshire; Mon- 

 roe County, Delaware County, Philadelphia, Port Allegheny, Foxburg, 

 Huntingdon County, Pennsylvania; Westport, Adirondack, Catskills, 

 Syracuse, Tioga County, New York city, New York; Sussex County, 

 New Jersey; Washington, District of Columbia; Centerville, Prince 



