CHAPTER XVII. 

 REPTILES. 



By 

 J. B. WILLIAMS, F.Z.S. 



OUT of about thirty Reptiles, that are found in 

 the Province of Ontario, only eleven occur in the 

 neighbourhood of Toronto. 



Of these only two are turtles the small Mud 

 Turtle, and the large Snapping Turtle. 



With a large marshy area, like Ashbridge Bay, 

 close to the city, one would have expected a greater 

 variety; but Toronto never seems to have been very 

 rich in reptile forms. The Blue-tailed Lizard, which 

 occurs north-east of the city at Peterborough, and 

 north-west around the Georgian Bay, has never been 

 found here ; and we have no poisonous snakes in thia 

 district. Rattlesnakes were, formerly, plentiful in 

 the country from Hamilton to Niagara, and a few 

 still linger in the Niagara glens, and they are also 

 found at the Georgian Bay ; but, like the lizard, they 

 seem to prefer rocky districts, and there is no record 

 of their ever occurring near Toronto. 



Nine snakes are found in this neighbourhood; 



four of these, viz., the Red-bellied, Dekay's Brown, 



Grass, and Ring-necked, are small snakes varying 



from a foot to eighteen inches in length; the other 



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