ALABAMA AMPHIBIANS AND REPTILES, 31 



near Hall's Mill Creek, about 14 miles southwest of Mobile. A 

 second specimen, which Mr. Loding informs me is like this one, 

 was taken alive at Grand Bay, 26 miles southwest of Mobile by 

 Dr. E. D. King, Jr. The latter, a female, was kept in confine- 

 ment for over a week, but refused to eat, so was preserved and 

 deposited in the Charles Mohr Museum in Mobile. 



As Mr. Loding and his friends have been collecting reptiles in 

 the vicinity of Mobile for several years, it would seem as if the 

 ordinary patterned form of Pituophis would have been found if 

 it occurred at all commonly in Mobile County. On the other hand the 

 black form was not found until this past season. Possibly, how- 

 ever, it had been confused in the field with some of the more com- 

 mon large black snakes, as Drymarchon corais couperi and Colu- 

 ber constrictor constrictor. 



The finding of the two black specimens of Pituophis so far 

 apart as twelve miles, and the absence of records for normally 

 colored individuals, suggest the exclusive occurrence in this re- 

 gion 0f a black phase of the Bull Snake. 



That all the Noi'th American bull snakes are very closely re- 

 lated can hardly be doubted. In fact, it appears that only color 

 pattern can be relied upon to distinguish them with certainty. 

 We would expect therefore to find each species of Pituophis di- 

 rectly related to the one inhabiting the adjacent range. We would 

 not then look for a black form occupying a range between the 

 ranges of the two closely allied pattern forms. In the United 

 States National Museum there are two examples of Pituophis 

 (No. 10363) From Murphy (near Knoxville), Tennessee, patterned 

 fike the eastern species, P melanoleucus. Our black phase could 

 therefore not extend further north than this point, and it is very 

 likely that it will prove to be restricted to the extreme south 

 where it is now found. If the Gulf Coast may be regarded as in 

 general unfavorable to the bull snakes, we may readily under- 

 stand how a local color phase may have become established in a 

 limited region of favorable habitat. 



As there are no other specimens of Pituophis on record from 

 this southern tier of states, and since it is chiefly on color char- 

 acters that the nearest species, P. Sayi and P. melanoleucus are 

 distinguished, it is rather difficult to assign this black form defin- 

 itely to either one. The two specimens from Murphy, Tennessee are 

 undoubtedly P. melanoleuctis . This is perhaps the most western 

 definite record for the eastern species. How much further west 

 it may extend can only be conjectured. Eastern records for P. 

 sayi seem to be limited to Illinois, but numerous western species 

 of reptiles are known east of the Mississippi River only in Illinois 

 and Indiana. These facts, and the apparently unfavorable habitat 

 of the lower Mississippi River region, suggest that P. melanoleu- 

 cus may occupy all the favorable areas in the southern states as 

 lar west as the Mississippi River. In that case our black speci- 

 mens may be regarded as a local phase of P. melanoleucus. 



