REPTILES OK THE PACIirC COAST. 



209 



W^ 



(J) 



(c) Brown above, 

 with three longitucliiiiil 

 lines; the dorsul line 

 yellow; the lateral lines 

 and more or less of the 

 belly bright briek red. 



Dark olive above, with no lateral lines; the dor- 

 sal line yellow and very 

 wide, the throat bright 

 yellow, the belly deep 

 olive or slate, with or 

 without a yellow streak 

 along its middle. This is Cope's E. infernalis vidua. 



None of these forms occurs alone in any one place 

 and the series of intergradations is complete, so that 

 these cannot be recognized as geographical races. Nev- 

 ertheless, the form (d) without lateral lines seems to 

 occur nowhere else than on the coast slope of the San 

 Francisco peninsula. 



Length to anus 175 450 475 510 540 560 



Length of tail 58 155 1.30 178 163 



Distribution. — The Elegant Garter Snake appears to 

 be confined to California north of the Tehachapi Moun- 

 tains. I have examined specimens from Shasta (Ft. 

 Reading), Placer (Lake Tahoe), El Dorado, Tuolumne 

 (Tuolumne Meadows), Mariposa (Tamarack Flat, Yosem- 

 ite Valley), Fresno (Fresno, Pitman Creek), Tulare, San 

 Luis Obispo, Monterey (Pacific Grove), Santa Cruz 

 (Soquel, Wadell Creek, Glenwood), Santa Clara (Mt. 

 Hamilton, Santa Clara, Stephen's Creek, Palo Alto), San 

 Mateo (Pescadero, La Honda, Searsville), San Francisco 

 (Lake Merced, Union Square), Alameda (Calaveras 

 Valley, Oakland), Contra Costa (Mount Diablo), Marin, 

 Lake (Middleton), and Mendocino (Pieta, Irishes, 



