COPE I A 11 



dug out accidentally. Snakes in this part of the 

 country hibernate under haystacks, piles of boards, 

 etc., but usually they seem to pass the winter in 

 gopher and ground squirrel holes in the ground. 



Between last Christinas and New Years I caught 

 one "Water" Snake and one Western Garter Snake 

 on a particularly warm day in a valley between the 

 city of Los Angeles and the ocean. Near Dulzura 

 I caught one more "Water" Snake and this winter 

 received two small unidentified snakes from Calexico, 

 where there is an arid tropical climate. Even in the 

 desert around Calexico, snakes are more scarce in 

 winter than they are in summer; though, if the truth 

 must be told, they are not plentiful there at any time. 



I have not known of any case of Clemmys mar- 

 morata — Southern California's only turtle — being 

 found in the winter. 



Paul D. R. Ruthling, 



Los Angeles, Calif. 



COLUMBUS ON THE REMORA. 



In the Journals of the first and second voyages 

 of Columbus are found respectively descriptions of 

 a species of Trunk and Sucking-fish observed near 

 Cuba. The account of the latter mentions that the 

 "Reversus," or Remora, was employed by the Indians 

 in a singular manner of fishing which consisted in 

 holding the "huntsman-fish" fast by a cord, and al- 

 lowing it to attach itself to the bodies of other fish 

 or large marine turtles. Humboldt conjectured the 

 "Reversus" to be identical with Eeheneis nauerates, 

 Poey with the species named by him E. guaicano. 

 Pre-Linnean writers on ichthyology continued to ap- 

 ply the term "Reversus" to the species of Sucking-fish 

 described by Columbus, and also included under the 

 same term a spinous variety, or "species," which is 

 easily recognizable from the descriptions and figures 

 as Diodon histrix. The use of the Remora as a 

 "huntsman-fish" in the manner first related by Colum- 



