152 NEW YORK ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 
as the adult. Young moccasins show brilliant shades of red 
and yellow at birth. The adults show a dull pattern of vary- 
ing shades of sombre olive. Very old specimens of the same 
species exhibit no pattern at all, the body being of a dull green. 
Quite different from the crotalines are the young of some 
of the colubrine snakes. The young of our Blacksnake (Bas- 
camium constrictor) are pale gray, with blotches of brown or red 
along the back. They much resemble the Milk Snake (Opiibolus 
doliatus triangulus). During their second year, they become 
darker, and the pattern appears diffused. The third year shows 
hardly a trace of the spots as the black of the adult form appears, 
although the sides still indicate the marking of the young snake. 
The Chicken-Snake (Coluber quadrivittatus) is remarkable, as 
are most of the species of the Genus Coluber, in showing, when 
young, an entirely different pattern from the adult, both forms 
being strongly colored. At the time of hatching the young 
chicken-snake presents a grayish appearance, decorated with a 
regular series of oblong blackish saddles. As the reptile ap- 
proaches maturity, the body colors change to a yellow, a dark 
stripe appears on each side of the saddle-like markings, and one 
on the side of the reptile’s body. These stripes become very dis- 
tinct before the saddles begin to fade. The latter change takes 
place usually during the third or fourth year, the mature form 
of the species being a uniform yellow or brown, traversed by four 
longitudinal stripes. 
Not alone do the snakes evince these color transitions among 
reptiles. A number of species of lizards show like characteris- 
tics. The Blue-Tailed Lizard (Eumeces quinquelinaetus), as its 
name implies, ‘is a species possessing a brilliant blue tail. The 
body is blackish, ornamented with five yellow stripes. As this 
species matures, the tail becomes a sombre gray, the body 
changes from black to brown, the stripes entirely disappear, and 
the head changes to a bright red. This form is known as 
Eumeces quinquelineatus erythrocephalus, and only recently was 
demonstrated to be merely the adult form of the Blue-Tailed 
Lizard, instead of a distinct species, as had previously been 
supposed. 
A number of interesting observations on the growth of the 
caudal appendage of rattlesnakes has been made in the Reptile 
House. It had been repeatedly noticed that the appearance of a 
new ring of the rattle is attended with the shedding of the snake’s 
skin. Some weeks prior to the shedding of the skin, and in fact 
before the eyes become cloudy, or the pattern fades, a swelling 
