THE BLACK SNAKE 89 



than itself. Its favorite food consists of small rodents, 

 young birds, eggs and frogs, but it does not eat fish. It is 

 a great destroyer of mice and moles, and deserves well of the 

 farmer on that account. 



The young differ in color from adult specimens, being 

 slaty gray, with chestnut-brown saddles on the back. In the 



WESTERN COACH-WHIP SNAKE, OR RED 

 RACER. 



third year these colors fade, and the snake assumes its adult 

 color. Speaking generally, the black form of this species 

 occurs nearly everywhere throughout the United States east 

 of the Mississippi into New England. What is called the 

 intermediate color is too widely scattered to be defined, while 

 the green-and-yelloiv form is found from Nebraska and Louisi- 

 ana westward to the Pacific coast, and from Puget Sound to 

 San Diego. 



