i^,<l53 



Jdne 5, 1919 Vol. VII. pp. 1-3 



PROCEEDINGS 



OF THE 



NEW ENGLAND ZOOLOGICAL CLUB 



ANOTHER NEW RACE OF THE KING SNAKE 



BY THOMAS BARBOUR 



I HAVE long known that king snakes from the peninsula of 

 Florida differ regularly and fundamentally in color from those 

 found further north. The contrast was especially evident to me, 

 since, until this winter, the last king snake I had taken myself 

 was found at Lakehurst, New Jersey, while in the past winter I 

 collected several others near Palm Beach. I wrote Dr. A. G. 

 Ruthven, telling him of my decision to describe this form, and 

 he replied that Mr. Blanchard was about to do the same thing. 

 Since then I have seen Blanchard's material, and have read his 

 description ^ with keen interest. Mr. Blanchard's race is found 

 over peninsular Florida, from about Lake County in the north 

 probably to the Miami River in the southeast. 



The limestone area of extreme southern Florida is inhabited 

 by still another race, as distinct in coloration from floridana as 

 this is from true getulus; but it is like its neighbor in the high 

 number of scale rows. It is perhaps not surprising that a tend- 

 ency to vary in coloration, that has become sufficiently well 

 marked to separate king snakes from central Florida so sharply 

 from all their more northern conspecific representatives, should 



> Occ. Papers Mus. Zool. Univ. Michigan, no. 70, May 5, 1919, p. 1-6. 



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