Notes on Staten Island Blacksnakes> 
Wm. T. Davis 
On October 23, 1920, the writer came upon a_ blacksnake, 
Coluber constrictor, 4 ft. 7 in. in length, that had been killed in 
Silver Lake Park on one of the two previous warm days, when the 
thermometer reached 80° F. in the shade. 
Blacksnakes are becoming rare on Staten Island, as is to be 
expected if we consider the increasing population, and it is remark- 
able that the specimen in question should have so long eluded its 
enemies, chiefly human, who inhumanly kill nearly every wild 
creature on sight. There are no rocky shelters on the island, such 
as occur along the banks of the Hudson Highlands, where many 
wild animals find a safe retreat. Even in Illinois the blacksnake 
is becoming rare and Prof. H. Garman in his Synopsis of the 
Reptiles and Amphibians of that state, published in 1892, says: 
“Formerly a common species, but it has been exterminated in the 
better agricultural regions, and is not common at present except in 
localities where there are extended tracts of uncultivated land to 
afford it retreats.’ In his list of the Snakes of Monroe and 
Orleans County, N. Y., Copeia, March 1919, Prof. A. H. Wright 
says of the blacksnake: “This species is becoming rare where it 
was once common.” 
A blacksnake, of the species under consideration, 6 ft. in length, 
may be considered a large specimen. In Copeia for July 1918, 
p. 76, one measuring 6 ft. 5 in., collected at Garrison-on-Hudson, 
Nee Dye Viten@weny Cattelliis) recorded | In Proc) NA Ser 
ASSOC. STATEN Is. 5: 92, 13 Je 1896, there is the record of the 
“cast-off skins of three blacksnakes, measuring respectively 5 ft. 
8in., 5 ft. 4% in., and 5 ft. % in. in length. They were found by 
Mr. H. W. Putnam, May 31, near the foot of Red Lane, South- 
field, and were intertwined when discovered, which may have re- 
1 Read at the meeting of the Nature Study Club October 1920. 
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