72 FAMILIAR LIFE IN FIELD AND FOREST. 



exceedingly gentle, frequenting wet meadows and 

 Bometimes climbing the alder bushes. My Manx 

 cat frequently brought the pretty green creatures 

 into my studio ; they never showed the slightest hos- 

 tility on being so roughly handled by the 

 cat. Maine to Virginia and Wisconsin. 

 Another similar species {Cyclophis 

 CBstivios)* length, twenty-seven inches, 

 has seventeen dorsal rows, the verte- 

 bral ones strongly heeled y a long, 

 slender Southern 

 green snake. North 

 to New Jersey and 



Green snake, 18 inches. 



southern Illinois. 



The fox snake {Coluber vulpinus). Length, sixty 

 inches ; light brown above, with sixty dorsal, trans- 

 verse chocolate blotches margined with black ; one 

 or two lateral rows ; yellowish-white beneath ; the 

 four lateral rows of scales smooth. Massachusetts to 

 Kansas and northward. 



The pilot snake, or mountain black snake {Coluber 

 obsoletus obsoletus). Length, sixty inches; graceful, 

 inoiiensive, and mild ; uniform silky brown or black 

 above, with a few of the scales narrowly edged with 

 white, slaty black beneath, with chin and throat yel- 



* Phyllophilophis cestivus. Samuel Garman. 



