+0. T HAM NO PHIS 



to 1 79, males having from 1 59 to 1 79, females from 1 5 1 

 to 175; the average in fifty males is 171, in forty-six 

 females, 163.4. The urosteges vary from 70 to 101, males 

 having from 78 to 101, females from 70 to 88, the average 

 in forty males is 86.4, in thirty females, 78.5. 



Distribution. — This subspecies is a mountain form which 

 seems to be confined to the Sierra Nevada and San Ber- 

 nardino Mountains. In the Sierra Nevada it has been taken 

 on both the east and west slopes. It seems not to occur 

 at the lower levels. I have examined specimens from the 

 following localities: 



In California, from Butte (Oroville), Yuba (Straw- 

 berry Valley), Placer (Soda Springs Station 6,500 feet), 

 El Dorado (FyfFe), Tuolumne (Tuolumne Meadows), 

 Mariposa (Tamarack Flat, Yosemite Valley, Yosemite 

 National Park at 7,700 feet), Fresno (Kings River at 5,000 

 feet), Tulare (Jackass Meadow at 7,750 feet, Monache 

 Meadow at 8,000 feet). Sierra (Sierraville), El Dorado 

 (Fallen Leaf Lake, Tallac, Lake Tahoe), Mono (Farring- 

 ton's), San Bernardino (San Bernardino Mountains at from 

 5,000 to 6,700 feet altitude. Seven Oaks, Santa Ana River, 

 Fish Creek, Bear Lake, Sugar Loaf Mountains, West Fork 

 Deep Creek), counties. 



In Nevada, from Glenbrook, Douglas County. 



Remarks. — Thamnophis ordinoides elegans is a dark, 

 distinctly striped form with no, or but little, evident spot- 

 ting, and usually without dark pigmentation of the gastros- 

 teges. It is closely related to T. o. va grans and to T. o. 

 couchii, agrees closely with both in most scale characters, 

 and, at certain points, intergrades with both. Thus, some 

 of the specimens from the Warner Mountains, Modoc 

 County, California, approach the elegans type of coloration 



