182 CALIFORNIA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES [Proc. 4th Ser. 



INTRODUCTORY REMARKS 



A number of years ago, in preparing an account of the rep- 

 tiles of the Pacific Coast, it became necessary to study with 

 great care the various species and races of garter-snakes of this 

 region. Cope had described and recognized some 17 kinds of 

 garter-snakes from these far-western states, and had left the 

 whole subject in most puzzling confusion. Critical study^ of 

 more than 300 fresh alcoholic specimens, in conjunction with 

 the material in the National Museum, including most of the 

 type specimens, showed that many of the forms recognized by 

 Cope were based solely upon individual variations, and as a 

 result of that study the species and races which seemed v/orthy 

 of recognition by name were reduced to seven. 



A. E. Brown, in 1901 and 1903, adopted those conclusions 

 except that he held that Cope's race vidua was identical with 

 T. leptocephala instead of with T. elegans, it having been based 

 upon the type specimens of Kennicott's Eutconia atrata. 



Some years later, Ruthven published an exhaustive account 

 of the garter-snakes. Unfortunately, much of the available 

 material from the Pacific states was not included in his studies. 

 It is probable that more abundant material would have changed 

 his views in several respects as to the relationship and distribu- 

 tion of our garter-snakes. Largely because Ruthven's views 

 and our own have not been in complete accord, we have under- 

 taken to study anew the garter-snakes found west of the Rocky 

 Mountains, and for this purpose have gathered together about 

 1700 of these snakes from this region. Most of these are the 

 property of the Academy, but several hundred have been bor- 

 rowed for study from the collections of Stanford University 

 and the University of California. For this privilege we are in- 

 debted to Professors Charles H. Gilbert and John O. Snyder 

 of Stanford and Dr. Joseph Grinnell of the University of 

 California. The snakes in the collection of the University of 

 California are distinguished by the letter C prefixed to their 

 numbers; those from Stanford University, by the letter S. 

 When no letter is attached to its number the specimen is in the 

 collection of the Academy. In this renewed study of these 

 snakes Mr. Slevin has assisted in many ways and especially is 

 responsible for the counts of the scales of all the specimens. 



^ The Reptiles of the Pacific Coast and Great Basin, by John Van Denburgh. Occa- 

 sional Papers Cal. Acad. Sci., Vol. V, pp. 1-236, 1897. 



