166 University of California Publications in Zoology. {Vou.5 
spot upon which the camera had been focused. The snake of 
course kept starting off and was repeatedly poked back with a 
stick, not roughly, however. Suddenly his snakeship appeared to 
give up completely, and became perfectly quiet. He shortly 
opened his mouth, gasped quickly several times, assumed a tetanie 
rigidity and—was dead! At least, he was still rigid four hours 
later, and his mouth, still open, was pretty well dried up. I con- 
signed him to the formalin can after examining his exterior 
closely. No trace of any possible injury was noted. He seemed 
to have suffered sunstroke due to violent exercise in the hot sun! 
If he had shown any signs of life subsequently I should have 
considered it a case of ‘‘playing ’possum,’’ as has been described 
of certain other snakes. (See pls. 20a, 20.) 
The species was met with once again on July 15, 1907, when 
an individual was observed in the road a mile above Seven Oaks. 
Thamnophis elegans (Baird & Girard). Elegant Garter Snake. 
This was the most abundant snake of the region. Although 
most noticeable as a ‘‘water snake,’’ yet I saw a good many on 
the dry sagey mountain sides as much as a quarter of a mile from 
water. Along the shallow margins of the streams and in cienagas 
they were most abundant. TI saw this species of garter snake all 
along the upper Santa Ana, as far as Big Meadows, 5500 to 6800 
feet altitude. Around the marshy east end of Bear lake there 
‘were numbers of these little snakes. The abundance of snails, 
tadpoles, and insects there seemed to indicate an unlimited food 
supply. 
On aceount of the confusion existing in regard to the ap- 
pleability of names to the various members of the genus Thanno- 
phis, I give a description of the species which I here eall elegans, 
though T judge another name will ultimately be found to apply 
to it. It will then be possible to allocate the present record def- 
initely. The following description was taken July 31, 1907, 
directly from a freshly caught and chloroformed specimen, ap- 
parently typical of all those seen on the upper Santa Ana. This 
specimen was noosed near our Cedar Cabin camp, elevation 5500 
feet. Its total length is 570 mm. (221% inches) ; tail from vent 
132 mm. The gastrosteges number 160: the urosteges (double 
