60 GLEANINGS FROM NATURE. 



presumably in search of frogs and salamanders which 

 frequent such damp localities; but the owner of the 

 milk usually asserts that it drinks that lacteous fluid 

 and hence gives it the name of " milk snake." 



In rare instances double-headed specimens of this 

 snake have been taken. The writer has seen one in 

 which the two heads were each about three inches 

 long and then united into one body. 



According to scientists, the house snake is only a 

 color variety of the red snake, Ophibolus doliatus (L.). 

 The latter is red or scarlet and has 20 or more pairs 

 of black rings, each pair enclosing a yellow spot. Its 

 habits are essentially the same as those of the house 

 snake, but it is much less common and seldom grows 

 above two feet in length. It has been taken in a num- 

 ber of localities in southern Indiana, but in the north 

 only the more spotted variety has, as yet, been found. 



Another spotted reptile closely allied to the house 



snake is the chain snake, Ophibolus callicj aster (Say). 



Its smooth scales are in 25 rows, and it has about 60 



squarish chestnut-colored blotches along the back 



which alternate with smaller rounded 



Snake spots along each side, the ground color 



being olive gray. 



The range of the chain snake is western, and but a 

 single specimen is so far known from Indiana. It 

 was taken by the writer from open woods just east of 

 Terre Haute in Vigo County, and is about three feet 

 in length. Nothing distinctive is known of its habits, 

 though in Illinois it is said to frequent prairies, where 

 it doubtless lives mainly upon small mammals and 

 insects. 



