REVISION OF THE KING SNAKES. 121 



mice, mostly young mice. We saw a great many more, but did not attempt to catch 

 them. I consider the Evans King snake a valued asset to the farmer, for it comes 

 out of hibernation earlier than most other species and lives largely upon mice, rats, 

 and moles. I have never been bitten by the Evans King snake nor had one attempt 

 to bite me, although I have caught hundreds of them. My experience has been 

 that this snake does most of its hunting for food between sun-up and 10 o'clock. It 

 is seldom that I have caught one out in the open in the afternoon. 



Seven specimens of calligaster v/ere taken in an open field along a 

 small ravine in Jersey County, Illinois, early in April, 1919, by Mr. 

 Mackelden and Mr. Froman A. Beach. One specimen disgorged 

 three nestlings of the field mouse, Microtus acrogaster, about five 

 hours after being caught. The mice showed no evidence that diges- 

 tion had begun. 



Eleven eggs of calligaster were plowed up early m August, 1918, 

 by Mr. Beach. These all hatched about a month later. 



Range. — This form is known from western Indiana south to Mis- 

 sissippi and Louisiana, westward to western Texas, and northeast to 

 Minnesota. It appears to be well known only from Illmois, Missouri, 

 and Kansas. The limits of its range can at present be only sur- 

 mised. It should be expected in western Kentucky and Tennessee. 

 The first record for Mississippi rests upon a specimen only recently 

 sent to the Museum of Zoology of the University of Michigan from 

 University, Mississippi, and the two records for Louisiana (Cornell 

 Univ. no. 7154, Jennings, Jefferson Davis County, Louisiana, October, 

 1906, A. G. Hammer, collector; no. 7153, Cliastine Natchitoches 

 County, Louisiana, Apr. 2, 1915, K. P. Schmidt, collector) have not 

 heretofore been recorded. It has several times been said to occur in 

 Wisconsin, but no defuiite record has been cited. A specimen in the 

 Museum of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia bears 

 the label '^ Minnesota.'^ There is no record for Iowa or Nebraska 

 and for Arkansas only the extreme northeastern corner of the State, 

 Greenway. Writmg for Texas, Strecker (1915, 38) says, 'Hhis beau- 

 tiful King snake has been reported from only a few scattered locali- 

 ties. It is found in the neighborhood of Waco, but is extremely 

 rare. In addition to the localities represented by specimens in the 

 United States National Museum, specimens from other museums have 

 been examined from the following localities: '^Minnesota;" Wine- 

 mac, and Vigo County, Indiana; Calhoun, Charleston and Cooks 

 Mills, Illinois; Manhattan, Wathena, Salt Creek, Lawrence, Rock 

 Creek, and Osage and Labette Counties, Kansas; Alva, Oklahoma; 

 Jennings and Chastine, Louisiana; University, Mississippi. 



Published records for other localities are as follows : Pekin, Illinois 

 (Garman, H., 1892, 293); Deming's Bridge, Matagorda County, 

 Texas (Garman, S., 1892, 9); Greenway, Arkansas (Hurter and 

 Strecker, 1909, 26) ; and the following counties in Kansas (Branson, 



