40. THAMNOPHIS 821 
absent, dorsal line yellow and very broad, throat bright 
yellow, and belly deep olive or slate with or without a 
median yellow streak. This is the coloration of the types 
of this subspecies, which types Cope redescribed as Eut@nia 
infernalis vidua. It is not a common style of coloration in 
this subspecies since we find it more or less well marked in 
only twenty-nine of three hundred and sixty-three specimens, 
or 8%. All of these specimens are from the San Fran- 
cisco peninsula, that is to say from San Mateo, Santa Clara, 
Santa Cruz, and Monterey counties. They, however, share 
this area with snakes of various other styles of coloration, 
and all sorts of intermediate specimens are to be found, so 
that this seems to be merely a peculiar color phase, although 
restricted geographically to a small portion of the range of 
the subspecies. 
In certain specimens the dorsal line is lacking, or very 
faint or short. This is found most frequently in specimens 
from Humboldt and Mendocino counties. 
Specimens from San Francisco and Marin counties usually 
may be recognized as such by their coloration, which is of a 
style not peculiar to these areas, but certainly most frequent 
there. There are three lines, the dorso-lateral region is 
largely red with dark spots, and the belly often is more 
or less suffused with bright brick red. 
Perhaps the most frequent style of coloration is that 
which shows three light lines on a brown or olive ground, 
with the belly yellow or olive. But, as we have said, indi- 
vidual variation in color is enormous. 
Distribution —The coast garter-snake occupies the coast 
region of California from Del Norte to Santa Barbara coun- 
ties. So far as known, the area inhabited by it includes the 
coast ranges and their valleys, but not the great interior 
valleys of the state. It occurs in both Transition and Upper 
