THE COLU BRINE SNAKES 



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Among the European representatives of the genus, the yellow, or ^Esculapian 

 snake {Coluber longissimus) is recognized by the small head, imperfectly distin- 

 guished from the neck, and rounded at the muzzle, as well as by the stout body, 

 rounded tail, and the nature of the scaling. On the head there is no small preor- 

 bital shield, and of the eight upper labials the fourth and fifth enter the circle of the 

 ye; the body has from twenty-one to twenty-three rows of smooth scales, and the 

 anal shield is divided. Generally, the upper surface is brownish yellow, with a 

 tinge of gray, and the lower aspect whitish, the hinder part of the head having a 

 yellow spot, while the back and sides are marked with small whitish dots, which in 

 some places are very distinctly defined, and assume the form of the letter X. There 

 is, however, great individual variation in color, and a dark and a light variety may 

 be recognized. In the south of Europe, where it attains a length of about four 



LEOPARD SNAKE. 



feet, this snake prefers rocky, or at least stony districts abundantly covered with 

 bushes; but in Schlangenbad, the only German locality where it is found in any 

 numbers, old walls are its favorite resorts. As it feeds chiefly on voles and mice, it 

 is a decided benefactor to the agriculturist and gardener. It also consumes, how- 

 ever, a certain number of lizards, as well as such birds as it can contrive to capture, 

 and occasionally plunders a nest and sucks the eggs. It is very fond of climbing 

 bushes, and low boughs or stumps of trees, as represented in our illustration; and 

 in thick forests will go from bough to bough, and then from tree to tree without 

 descending to the ground. Indeed, it is such an adept in climbing, that it fre- 

 quently captures swift-running lizards on the stems of trees. 



Another South European species is the four-lined, or leopard snake (C. leopar- 

 dinus}. Remarkable for the beauty of its coloration, which, however, is subject to 



