REPTILES. 115 



found in bushes, several feet from the ground. When pursued it 

 glides through the pools and herbage at an astonishing rate, and 

 does not hesitate to take to water and conceal itself among the 

 water plants, but it generally remains near the surface, and we 

 have never observed it dive to the bottom like a natricid snake. 

 There are numerous short notes in the literature, to the effect that 

 sauritus prefers damp situations. 



"Ditmars (1907, 217-219) states that it feeds on salamanders, tad- 

 poles, frogs, and fish, but, like sackeni, refuses earthworms. Two 

 other writers, Atkinson (1901, 151) and Surface (190G, 142-143), 

 record insects in stomachs examined. The latter gives the following 

 as making up the stomach contents of Pennsylvania specimens : 

 Earthw^orms, spiders, insect fragments, ants, Pletliodon cinereus, 

 Spelerpes hilineatus, Hyla versicolor. It should be noted that the 

 insects may have been contained in the stomachs of the frogs and 

 salamanders. The number of young is comparatively small; we 

 have counted the embryos in a few specimens, and they seem to 

 average about a dozen." 



Range: The eastern ribbon snake is not very common in Michi- 

 gan, at least it is rarely taken by collectors. It has thus far only 

 been found in the southern peninsula. The specimen from 

 Roscommon County, listed below, is the most northern 

 record. A specimen has been recorded from Isle Royale in the 

 museum catalog (Ruthven, 1906, 112), but this record is very doubt- 

 ful and has not been indicated on the map. It has been reported 

 from: Michigan (Sager, 1839, 302; Miles, 1861, 233), Hudson, 

 Lenawee County (Kirsch, 1895, 333), Ann Arbor (Smith, 1879, 6), 

 Eaton County (Clark, 1902, 194), Ann Arbor, Olivet, and Barry, 

 Kalamazoo, Kent, Montcalm, Ottawa and Van Buren Counties 

 (Clark, 1905, 109), Roscommon, Gratiot, Eaton, Washtenaw, 

 Lapeer, Ingham Counties (Ruthven, 1908, 112), the sand region of 

 Huron County from Sand Point to Port Austin (Ruthven, 1911a, 

 269). Specimens from the folloAving localities have been examined: 

 various parts of Washtenaw County, Pontiac and Walnut Lake, 

 Oakland County, Detroit, Wayne Count}^, Alma, Gratiot County, 

 Eaton Count} , Lapeer County, and Lansing, Ingham County. 



