40. THAMNOPHIS 821 



absent, dorsal line yellow and very broad, throat bright 

 yellow, and belly deep olive or slate with or without a 

 median yellow streak. This is the coloration of the types 

 of this subspecies, which types Cope redescribed as Eutcenia 

 infernalis vidua. It is not a common style of coloration in 

 this subspecies since we find it more or less well marked in 

 only twenty-nine of three hundred and sixty-three specimens, 

 or 8%. All of these specimens are from the San Fran- 

 cisco peninsula, that is to say from San Mateo, Santa Clara, 

 Santa Cruz, and Monterey counties. They, however, share 

 this area with snakes of various other styles of coloration, 

 and all sorts of intermediate specimens are to be found, so 

 that this seems to be merely a peculiar color phase, although 

 restricted geographically to a small portion of the range of 

 the subspecies. 



In certain specimens the dorsal line is lacking, or very 

 faint or short. This is found most frequently in specimens 

 from Humboldt and Mendocino counties. 



Specimens from San Francisco and Marin counties usually 

 may be recognized as such by their coloration, which is of a 

 style not peculiar to these areas, but certainly most frequent 

 there. There are three lines, the dorso-lateral region is 

 largely red with dark spots, and the belly often is more 

 or less suffused with bright brick red. 



Perhaps the most frequent style of coloration is that 

 which shows three light lines on a brown or olive ground, 

 with the belly yellow or olive. But, as we have said, indi- 

 vidual variation in color is enormous. 



Distribution. The coast garter-snake occupies the coast 

 region of California from Del Norte to Santa Barbara coun- 

 ties. So far as known, the area inhabited by it includes the 

 coast ranges and their valleys, but not the great interior 

 valleys of the state. It occurs in both Transition and Upper 



