20 THE SNAKES OF THE MARITIME PROVINCES OK CANADA. 



some features of variation fairly constant in this section : 



The nine examples give an average, as before stated, of one 

 hundred and forty-six gastrosteges and fifty-eight urosteges, a 

 material reduction of the average of this species further south. 

 The tail too is relatively shorter. 



The (iarter Snake is ovoviviparous, from fifteen to eighty 

 being produced at a birth; but the writer has never found more 

 than twenty-five embryos, even in very large specimens. They 

 are pale-bluish, beautifully spotted with brown, and from five to 

 seven inches long at birth. It is said they take refuge from 

 danger in the throat and gullet of the parent, but the writer has 

 never observed them doing so. The young seem to be born late 

 in summer, for undeveloped ones were found by the writer in 

 specimens collected early in August. 



