FAMILY COLUBERID^. 45 



The first positive notice wliicii I iiave been enabled to find of this species, is contained in 

 the Travels of Schoepff.* The foUowing extract indicates plainly enough this species : " Die 

 " Band Schlange, Garter Snake, Coluber taenia. (Scut, abdom. 145 - 148 ; squam. sub- 

 " caud. 60 - 65.) About three to tliree and a half feet long ; the blackish brown back has 

 " three handsome pale yellow (blatzgelbe) narrow stripes running straight from the head to the 

 " tail, by which these serpents are readily recognized." 



The Striped Snake is of a robust clumsy make, and is comparatively sluggish in its move- 

 ments. It is known under various popular names, such as Green Garter-snake, Slow Garter, 

 Swamp Garter, Water Garter, Striped Adder, <|-c. It feeds on frogs, toads, and the smaller 

 quadrupeds. It takes the water readily in pursuit of its prey, and chiefly affects low marshy 

 places. When irritated without the means of escape, it elevates its scales in such a manner 

 as to give the whole body a peculiarly roughened appearance ; and under such circumstances, 

 will bite, and leave a troublesome though not dangerous wound. In Ohio, according to Kirt- 

 land, its numbers are rapidly decreasing ; as it is eaten by hawks, owls, hogs, and in some 

 instances by fowls, ducks and turkeys. 



It is our most common species, and I have even noticed it in the northern parts of the State 

 at an elevation of two thousand feet above the tide water. It extends to Canada. It is fre- 

 quently found in great numbers, and sometimes in company with rattlesnakes, under peat 

 moss, at a sufficient depth to protect them from frost. In the neighljorhood of New- York, 

 they retire about the beginning of October, and reappear about the last of May, although their 

 times of appearance and retreat vary very much with the nature of the season. 



THE YELLOW-BELLIED SNAKE. 



Tbopidonotus leeeris. 



PLATE XI. FIG. 23. 



Coluber leberis. Kalii, Travels in the U. S. Linneus, Syst. Nat. 



Vipera id.? Daddin, Hist. Reptiles, Vol. C, p. 2t8. 



C. septemviltatus. Say, Jour. Acad. Nat. Sc. Vol. 4, p. 240. Harlan, Med. & Pliys. Res. p. 113. 



Tropidomtus leberis. Holbkook, N. Am. Herpetology, Vol. 4, p. 49, pi. 13. 



Characteristics. Olive brown, with three black lines ; beneath yellow, with four distant lon- 

 gitudinal series of quadrate spots. Length two to three feet. 



Description. Head small, rounded in front. Vertical plate pentagonal, broadest in front ; 

 frontal plates hexagonal, descending on the sides of the head so as to join the loral plate. 

 Rostral plate si.x-sided ; occipital pentagonal, smaller, notched behind. Nasal plates two. 

 quadrilateral, subequal. Nostrils lateral, near the snout. Neck contracted, covered witli 



» Schoepff came out to this country- as surgeon to a band of German mercenaries employed by England during the Revolution- 

 ary war. He is favorably known by his various papers in the Transactions of the Berlin Natural History Society, on the Fishes 

 of New-York ; and by his Historia Testudinum, and a work on the Mineralogy of North America. 



