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IOWA ACADEMY OF SCIENCE 
or black spots and the dark and light bands on the head. The center of 
the belly is black with a few irregular yellow spots. The ends of the 
gastrosteges are yellow, except that the black of the middle of the belly 
is prolonged across every second or third scute. 
A large female, taken on July 20, laid five eggs on August 4, but died 
shortly afterward vdthout passing the rest of those in the oviducts. 
Branson"'^ states that he found a full grown meadow-lark in the stomach 
of one of these snakes. One specimen which we found in a stubble field 
near a patch of upland prairie had eaten a large toad, and one in cap- 
tivity ate a large leopard frog. Brous^" records the finding of indmd- 
uals of this species attached to the hind leg of the box tortoise {Terrapene 
ornata), which they had partially digested. From this, Brous and Bran- 
son both conclude that the snake sometimes attaches itself to the tortoise 
in this way for the purpose of sucking the blood. This hardly seems prob- 
able in view of the known food-habits of the snake. A much more plaus- 
ible explanation is that the observed snakes had seized the leg in an at- 
tempt to swallow the tortoise, and, this being impossible, were unable 
to release their hold, owing to the fact that the long posterior fangs had 
become deeply imbedded. 
11. Clirysemys cinerea bellii (Gray). — BelFs Turtle. This was 
found to be the common turtle in Clay and Palo Alto counties. It was 
observed in nearly every slough, pond, lake and stream examined, in 
both counties. 
The specimens taken are typical bellii. The ground color of the cara- 
pace varies from olive to black. There is usually on the costals a rather 
prominent yellowish line, and on the costals and vertebrals a number of 
smaller and more obscure ones. The yellow bands that usually margin 
the costal and vertebral scutes in cinerea are present or absent but when 
present are narrower or more irregular than in the typical form. A 
narrow vertebral stripe is present in most of the specimens. The color 
pattern of the marginals is distinctive : the dark ground color of the up- 
per face is relieved by a prominent median and two fainter lateral 
bands; these markings are yellowish in color, vertical in position, and the 
median is, at its outer end, continued laterally to form an outer narrow 
light border to the marginal. The inferior face of each marginal also 
possesses a prominent median yellow band (directly below its fellow on 
the superior face) that extends laterally along the outer edge of the 
plates, and also tends to be extended at its inner end and connected with 
its neighbors, restricting the black ground color to a spot. The black 
isBranson, E. B., Snakes of Kansas. Kansas Univ. Sci. Bull., II, p. 377. 
^^Brous, H. A., Notes on the Habits of Some Western Snakes. Amer. Nat., XVI., 
pp. 564-566. 
