SNAKE LORE FOR FOREST LOVERS 



441 



either semi-aquatic (Water moccasin) or arboreal 

 (Cyclophis). As a rule, they lay subellipsoidal, white 

 eggs; while a few, as in the case of the common water 

 snake, bring forth their numerous young alive. 



Omitting any notice of the three beautiful Boas found 

 in Lower California and Arizona, and the small Texan 

 and Calif ornian blind snakes {Glauconia), we may pass 

 to the Garter or striped snakes. Of these there are many 

 species found in different regions of the United States. 

 Some are by habit gentle, very beautiful, and attractive 

 in many particulars (Figs. 5 and 6). No one of them 

 is in the slightest degree venomous, although several of 

 the species are vicious by nature, and will bite one if in- 

 cautiously handled. They are extremely variable with 

 respect to coloration and markings, and Dr. Raymond L. 

 Ditmars says of them in his "Snake-Book" that "no 

 genus of North American serpents is so difficult to de- 

 scribe as the present one and particularly to treat in a 

 popular manner. Among several of the species, the varia- 

 tions in pattern are so elaborate, that to describe the 

 species on the basis of coloration alone would be to bring 

 about a meaningless repetition of exhaustive details. The 

 common species vary in a bewildering degree, and in such 



THE LITTLE RIBBON SNAKE 



Fig. 6. Ribbon snakes of the species here shown are found 

 throughout eastern United States ; they inhabit the reedy mar- 

 gins of ponds and streams, subsisting largely upon small frogs 

 and other aquatic forms. This one was captured and photo- 

 graphed by the writer, and it was found in the very plant here 

 shown. 



A COMMON GARTER SNAKE 



Fig. 5. This specimen was taken by the writer in the District 

 of Columbia, and was iphotographed before it was sent to the 

 "Zoo" at Washington. It is a snake with a bad temper; while 

 its bite, although by no means agreeable, is attended with no. 

 danger whatever. 



a fashion that the beginner might be led to mistake a 

 pronounced variety of one species for the typical form of 

 another." 



Many of the species of the Garter snakes are more or 

 Jess aquatic by nature, and live upon amphibious ani- 

 mals of various kinds, as frogs, toads, insects, or even 

 small fishes, when they can take them. A Garter snake 

 once captured by the writer on the banks of the Hudson 

 River, near New York City, gave birth during one night 

 to no fewer than seventeen very beautiful young ones. 

 A fine 8x10 negative was made of this family, and is now 

 on file with many other snake negatives in the writer's 

 collection. 



Garter snakes, when kept alive under proper condi- 

 tions and regularly fed with fish, frogs, etc., are found 

 to present many habits of marked interest to the students 

 of the genus of reptiles. In the Reptile House of the 

 Bronx "Zoo", at New York, one may see numbers of 



