74 COP FA A 



AN INSTANCE OF ALBINISM IN THE 

 WESTERN GOPHER SNAKE. 



Cases of complete albinism are fairly common 

 among wild birds and mammals, and a large number 

 of instances have been recorded by various observers, 

 but reports of this condition in reptiles are quite rare ; 

 there are but few records from Europe and only a 

 single one from America so far as the writer knows. 

 It becomes of interest therefore to report a case of 

 albinism (complete for one color) occurring in the 

 Western Gopher Snake [Pituophis catenifer (Blain- 

 ville)]. 



The specimen under discussion was captured in 

 a dormant state at Pescadero, a coastal locality in 

 San Mateo County, California, early in November, 

 1913, on black adobe soil where gopher snakes were 

 said to be fairly common. The snake was kept alive 

 for more than a year and is now in the reptile col- 

 lection of the Department of Zoology of the Univer- 

 sity of California. 



The coloration of a typical gopher snake seems 

 to be made up of three distinct materials: a yellow 

 deposit found generally distributed in the scales of 

 the body and forming the ground color, and two 

 darker pigments, a red and a black, occurring locally 

 and forming the contrasted part of the color pattern. 

 The yellow pigment is present in the scales of the 

 albino specimen as is also (in part at least) the red, 

 but the black is entirely lacking. Upon the anterior 

 portion of the body, where ordinarily the black and 

 red together form brown spots only the red is present, 

 and on the tail where a normal specimen is black, 

 only pale bluish or uncolored areas are to be seen. 

 The iris and tongue which are normally dark shared 

 in the loss of color and were of a light pinkish cast. 

 Evidently the factor controlling the formation and 

 deposition of black pigment failed of operation 

 throughout the entire body. 



