816 13. COLUBRIDA 
Remarks.—This is the common garter-snake of the 
northwest coast. It is of small size. The largest specimen 
examined measures 590 mm. to base of tail. The head is 
small, not so distinct from the neck as in other races, and 
the labials are reduced in number. 
The coloration is very variable. The dorsal line fre- 
quently is absent or developed only on the neck. The 
lateral lines also may be absent. Specimens may be heavily 
spotted or without any marking, either lines or spots. The 
dorsal line usually is yellow, but may be red, and there 
often is red elsewhere in the coloration, as on the gastro- 
steges. The lower surfaces often are dark, and the colora- 
tion everywhere may be very dusky. 
Specimens with heavy spotting and dark pigmentation 
of the gastrosteges resemble 7. 0. vagrans, but usually may 
be easily distinguished by their scale characters. 
Specimens showing no dorsal line resemble 7. 0. couchit, 
but here again the scale characters are quite different. 
The closest relationship of this sub-species undoubtedly 
is with 7. 0. atratus, yet there can be no doubt as to the 
subspecific distinctness of the two forms. ‘The differences 
in the number of superior and inferior labials, scale-rows 
and gastrosteges should be sufficient aid toward their cor- 
rect determination, and the general appearance usually is 
quite different. Certain specimens, however, are so nearly 
intermediate in one or more of their characters that students 
might differ in opinion as to their identity. Such specimens, 
as set forth under head of T. 0. atratus, show real geo- 
graphic intergradation. So far as specimens examined by 
us show, this intergradation occurs only in Del Norte 
County, California, where the ranges of the two forms meet 
and perhaps overlap slightly. Many of the specimens from 
this county are typical of either one or the other subspecies, 
—ordinoides or atratus,—and most of the intergrades seem 
