SNAKES 133 



laid in captivity, are very difficult to hatch under artificial 

 conditions. Major Wall recommends as the best method 

 to place them daily in fresh earth under an inverted 

 flower-pot, the latter giving the necessary darkness. In 

 the wild state the mother remains with the eggs until 

 they are hatched. 



The Garter Snake, T. ordinatus, is found all over North 

 and Central America, and is imported to this country in 

 enormous quantities, being invariably on the market. 

 This snake, the coloration of which is very variable, has 

 been divided up into numerous species, which, owing to 

 the existence of intermediate forms and the inconstancy 

 of their characters, can hardly be regarded as more than 

 geographical varieties. Although the typical form, which 

 occurs in the United States, east of the Mississippi, is 

 not provided with lateral or vertebral stripes, these are 

 present in most forms, hence the name Garter Snake. 



The typical form is olive or green above, uniform or 

 with black spots. The variety sirtalis, of North America, 

 east of the Rocky Mountains, and of North Mexico, is 

 brownish-olive or black above, with three yellow, red, or 

 pale green stripes. Another form is the variety eques^ 

 inhabiting Lower California, Texas, Arizona, Mexico, and 

 Guatemala. It is olive above, with black spots, and a 

 wide, deep orange vertebral stripe, and a yellow or white 

 lateral band ; a black collar is constant. In all the above- 

 mentioned forms the scales are disposed in nineteen rows. 

 In the variety mocrostemma, however, which also inhabits 

 Mexico and Arizona, and which is ohve brown, with dark 

 spots, the scales are in twenty-one rows. 



Garter Snakes frequent swamps or meadows where the 



