40. THAMNOPHIS 847 
specimen is Oceano, San Luis Obispo County. It occurs also 
in Santa Barbara, Ventura, Los Angeles, San Bernardino, 
Riverside and San Diego counties, and northwestern Lower 
California. Its range is chiefly in the Upper Sonoran Zone 
but extends into the Lower Sonoran and Transition zones. 
I have examined specimens from San Luis Obispo 
(Oceano), Santa Barbara (Santa Inez River), Ventura (San- 
ta Paula), Los Angeles (West Fork San Gabriel River, 
Pasadena, Los Angeles, Claremont, Rock Creek), San Ber- 
nardino (Victorville, Santa Ana Canyon and River, San Ber- 
nardino Mts., Ontario, Chino), Riverside (Riverside, San 
Jacinto Valley, Keen Camp, Hemet Lake, Base of San Jacin- 
to Mts. near Cabazon, Palm Canyon at 800 feet, Tahquitz 
Valley at 8,000 feet), Orange (Laguna Beach), and San 
Diego (Agua Caliente, Oak Grove, Carlsbad, Santa Ysabel 
Valley, Witch Creek, Cuyamaca Mts., Sweet Water Dam, 
Dulzura, Campo) counties, California. 
This snake has been recorded also from northern and 
central Lower California, Mexico (Comondu, La Guilla, 
San Antonio, Mulege, San Ignacio, Ensenada, and the 
mountains near Hanson’s Laguna). 
Remarks.—T hamnophis ordinoides hammondii is a well 
differentiated subspecies. The dorsal line is completely 
lacking in all specimens we have examined—even the young- 
est ones—which had been taken in southern California. 
Some specimens show a nuchal spot, but none even a short 
line. Specimens from this area also show little or no black 
on the belly. The name hammondii often has been applied 
to snakes collected farther north, as in the San Joaquin Val- 
ley and the Sierra Nevada. These northern snakes, how- 
ever, almost invariably have at least some trace of a dorsal 
line, and often show more or less black on the belly scutes, 
as in vagrans. Their status is discussed in this paper under 
