HERPETOLOGICAL N0TE5 FROM KANSAS AND TEXAS. 



BY P. W. CRAGIN. 



Terrapene ornata, Ag., var. nov. cimarronensis . — I would 

 propose this name for what appears to be merely a color 

 variety of T. ornata in which the ordinarily yellow parts on 

 the limbs and neck are replaced by bright red. This variety, 

 with which I have been acquainted for some ten years, is 

 common over most of the western half of Kansas and Okla- 

 homa. In west-central and northwestern Kansas, it partly, 

 and in the southern tier of Kansas counties from Barber 

 westward almost if not quite supplants the typical variety. 

 I have observed a single specimen in southeastern Colorado, 

 about midway between Kansas and the mountains. The 

 peculiar home of the variety is apparently the ''Red beds" 

 country of the Cimarron basin, upon whose red terranes it 

 may possibly have had its origin, afterwards extending its 

 range by migration. 



Apropos of the western range of Terrapane, it would seem 

 that it falls a little short of the eastern base of the Rocky 

 Mountains in Colorado. Prof. Geo. H. Stone states that, in 

 his twelve years of residence here, he has never observed it 

 in the vicinity of Colorado Springs. Prof. William Strieby, 

 who resided for two years at Santa F^, states that he has ob- 

 served a single specimen of the box-tortoise in New^ Mexico, 

 though he does not now remember the exact locality. 



The Three-toed Box-tortoise, Terrapcne triungnis, Ag., 

 seems not to have been recorded from Texas, though it is 

 known from Indian Territory and Louisiana, so that its oc- 

 currence in Texas is not unexpected. 



I am indebted to Mr. G. H. Ragsdale for several speci- 

 mens of this species which are now before me from Gaines- 

 ville, Texas, which is apparently the most westerly locality 

 known for its occurrence. That it will be found yet a little 

 further west in the valley of the Red river, is not improbable. 



