1912] Taylor: Birds and Reptiles of Northern Nevada. 355 



1; Virgin Valley (5000 feet), 1; Thousand Creek Flat (5000 

 feet), 1. 



Habits. — Garter snakes were fairly common in the grassy 

 marshes along the Quinn River. When pursued they moved 

 with a fair degree of rapidity and generally took refuge in the 

 water of some irrigating ditch, or in a pool of the main river 

 itself. Upon being roughly handled the snakes would often 

 disgorge a number of pollywogs. 



When picked up they do not ordinarily attempt to bite, but 

 have a fairly effective protection in their habit of giving off 

 "a strong and offensive odor if handled" (Ditmars, 1907, p. 236) 

 and of voiding excrement. 



A female garter snake, secured July 31 on the Duffer Peak 

 Meadow, altitude 8400 feet, contained eggs near the hatching 

 point. Probably the young are born earlier on the open desert 

 than at this altitude. At this date there were still patches of 

 snow in the woods. 



One morning early in July as we were walking through the 

 sagebrush at the head of Big Creek (altitude 8000 feet) our 

 attention was attracted by the excited "chips" of a pair of white- 

 crowned sparrows {Zonotricliia leiicophrys leucoplirys) . The 

 cause for this excitement proved to be a garter snake which w^as 

 crawling over their nest. Evidently it was after the young 

 birds, but it did not appear to have captured any, as they were 

 by this time old enough to escape. 



Crotalus (species indet.) 

 Rattlesnake 



Distribution. — Ten rattlers were secured, being distributed by 

 locality as follows: Quinn River Crossing (4100 feet), 1; Big 

 Creek Ranch (4350 feet), 1; Big Creek Cailon (5000 feet), 1; 

 Granite Creek (4300 feet), 1; Leonard Creek Ranch (4300 feet), 

 2; Virgin Valley (5000 feet), 4. 



Although Crotalus lucifer (Stejneger, 1893, p. 448) has been 

 recorded from Pyramid Lake, the Truckee River, and from 

 various localities farther east in Nevada, as well as from Utah, 

 Idaho, and Oregon, I can by no means be sure that our examples 

 are referable to it. They differ markedly from specimens of 



