STRIPED OR GARTER SNAKE. | 681 
‘a 
Occasionally owing to open or very mild weather they re-appear, for a 
few days at a time, earlier, andthen seem toagain hybernate. They are gre- 
garious in winter quarters, having beenfrequently ploughedupin bunches, 
are sometimes found under peat, and in company with rattlesnakes. Dr. 
Kirtland reports that they are eaten by hawks, owls, swine, and in some 
instances, by fowls, ducks,and turkies. The femalesin July and August 
are usually found pregnant with from twenty-five to forty young, and in 
September and October the sexes have been seen in copulation. 
Var. dorsalis, Baird and Girard, hasa broader vetebral stripe, margined on each side 
for one scale in width with black, as are also the sides of the abdominal scutellea and 
upper basal edge of the scales in the exterior dorsal row; arow of spots above the 
lateral stripe, and the outer row of dorsal scales acutely emarginate. 
Var. parietalis, Baird and Girard, has a moderately broad dorsal stripe, and the 
spaces about and between the lateral dark spots brick red. It is probably extralimital, 
ranging from Indiana to Texas and West. 
Var. radix, Baird and Girard, has the scales rough, the outer row broad, the stripes 
narrow, the lateral ones being less than a seale in width though situated upon two rows, 
often upon the third and fourth, and has six series of distinct black spots... It is extra- 
limital, ranging from Illinois and Wisconsin, to Minnesota, Dakota, Oregon, and Wash- 
ington Territory. 
_ Another variety occurring in the State is characterized by the entire 
absence of the dorsal stripe, it might appropriately be called melanota. 
GENUS REGINA. Baird and Girard. 
Body rather slender; size moderately small; teeth isodont; cephalic plates normal; 
anteorbitals two or one; postorbitals two, sometimes three ; labials and inframaxillaries 
moderate ; nasals one or two; loral present; prefrontals two; dorsal scales carinated 
in 19-21 rows ; gastrosteges 130- 164 ; urosteges 50-85, all divided ; post-abdominal scutella 
bifid ; general color light beneath, dark above, usually with longitudinal bands ; habits 
mostly aquatic; reproduction ovoviviparous. 
Anteorbitals two. a. 
Anteorbitals one. : : : : : : : R. KIRTLANDIL, 
a. Vertical plate as broad at ‘posterion edge of superciliaries as in front. 6b. 
a. Vertical plate less broad at posterior edge of superciliaries than infront; extra- 
limital; Texas. 6 A : 3 : : : : . R. CLARKIL, 
6b. Abdomen unicolor or with bands. c. 
b. Abdomen with two series of black spots; extralimital; Pennsylvania and 
South. ‘ ° ° : j ‘ R. RIGIDA. 
¢. Vertical plate notched upon ae tee . receive the projecting angle of the 
superciliaries. : ‘ A : : : . Jt. GRAHAMI. 
c. Sides of vertical plate not notched. : : 3 .  &. LEBERIS, 
