33. P ITU OP HIS 



when the eggs were removed, although she had not shown 

 the slightest resentment when handled on previous days. 



Mr. Tracy I. Storer has published the following notes 

 on an "albino" snake of this subspecies: 



"The specimen under discussion was captured in a dor- 

 mant 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 com- 

 mon. The snake was kept alive for more than a year and 

 is now in the reptile collection of the Department of Zo- 

 ology of the University of California. 



"The coloration of a typical gopher snake seems to be 

 made up of three distinct materials j 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 to- 

 gether 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 

 iight pinkish cast. Evidently the factor controlling the 

 formation and deposition of black pigment failed of opera- 

 tion throughout the entire body. 



"Accompanying this abnormality in coloration there were 

 irregularities in scale pattern, especially on the head, which 

 suggests that whatever cause operated to prevent the for- 

 mation of black pigment also may have had some effect on 

 scale formation. Several of the head scales are of quite dif- 

 ferent shape than those found on a normal specimen, and 

 some show suggestions of divisions which were not com- 



