172 CALIFORNIA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 



abundant where the country is covered with chaparral 

 and where small streams are numerous. It is usually 

 very gentle, but sometimes fights its captor most fierce- 

 ly, rarely, however, being able to draw blood with its 

 small teeth. I have twice found it swallowing the con- 

 tents of quail's nests, and once observed one crawling 

 along the ground and looking up into the bushes for 

 nests of small birds. Several times while I watched its 

 quick eyes detected nests three or four feet above it, but 

 although the snake immediately climbed up to these, it 

 did not obtain a meal, for the nests which it examined 

 had been abandoned by their builders or robbed by some 

 earlier comer. 



While I was watching a man spade up a small plot of 

 ground, he killed two gophers (Thomomys) and threw 

 them a few feet away. A few minutes later a snake of 

 this species appeared, went directly to the spot where 

 the gophers lay side by side, and swallowed first the 

 adult and then the half grown one. It took no notice 

 of our presence, and after completing its hearty meal 

 disappeared in the direction whence it had come. 



53 — Lampropeltis californiae (Blainville). California 

 Milk Snake. 



Coluber (Ophis) Californice, Blainv., Noiav. Anu.du Mtis., IV, 1835, 

 p. 292, pi. XXVII, figs. 1-lb (type locality California); B. & 

 G., Cat. N. A. Kept., Pt. I, Serp., 1853, p. 153. 



Coronella California-, Dcm. & Bibr., Erp. Gen., VII, 1854, p. 623. 



Ophihohis California;, Cope, Bull. U. S.Nat. Mns., No. 1, 1875, p. 37. 



Ophibolus gettilus eiseni. Yarrow, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., V, 1882, 

 p. 4.S9 (type locality Fresno, California). 



Ophibolus getulns California, Cope, Proc. U. S. Nat. Mus., XIV, 1891, 

 p. 614. 

 , Coronella getula, Boulenger, Cat. Snakes Brit. Mus., II, 1894, p. 

 197 (part). 



Description. — Similar to L. hoylii in everything but 

 color. Top of head is slightly flattened posteriorly. 



