COPEIA 91 



The club is not a snake club, for only about two 

 out of its twenty Active Members are deeply inter- 

 ested in herpetology. 



Among the most useful of the California snakes 

 is the Pacific Bull Snake (or Gopher Snake), Pituo- 

 jjJiis catenijer, which is common on the Pacific Coast. 

 Its food consists chiefly of rodent pests, such as go- 

 phers, mice, ground-squirrels and small rabbits. Al- 

 though he prefers these animals for food, the Pacific 

 Bull Snake has a rather accommodating appetite, 

 which must under the force of necessity adapt itself 

 to circumstances and include in his ophiological menu, 

 birds, an occasional rat, bats, and sometimes a lizard 

 or two. Sometimes an egg (or several) is command- 

 eered, but I have never known of a Pacific Bull 

 Snake's having eaten any egg as large as a chicken's. 



One sixty-four inch Pacific Bull Snake that was 

 brought to me was handled too much. A slight touch 

 of mat de mer resulted in his vomiting four full-grown 

 gophers, none of which was more than slightly di- 

 gested. On another occasion more than a dozen mice 

 had the misfortune to run foul of a mouse trap I had 

 set for living mice. These same mice had the addi- 

 tional misfortune all to find their way into the stom- 

 ach of a good-sized hungry Pacific Bull Snake. 



Taking it all in all, the good done by the Pacific 

 Bull Snake has already earned him the protection of 

 many ranchers and far outweighs any harmful depre- 

 dations his lack of discretion may at times mislead 

 him to make. 



Paul D. R. Ruthling, 



Los Angeles, Calif. 



NOTES ON THAMNOPHIS SIRTALIS 

 FROM CAPE ANN, MASSACHUSETTS. 



Dr. A. G. Ruthven in his monograph on the Gar- 

 ter Snakes, plots out some curves of scale variation 

 in the genus and suggests the desirability of securing 

 data on the scale formulae of specimens from other 



