Arizona Bull Snake

Pituophis sayi, variety bellona, (Baird and Girard)

Dimensions: The measurements given are of a specimen from Beaver County, Utah:
Distribution: Southern Oregon, Idaho, Colorado, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, New Mexico and western Texas. It also extends southward into Mexico. The Western border of its distribution is the Sierra Nevada range of mountains, west of which boundary occurs the Pacific Coast species, P. catenifer.

This variety of the preceding reptile is not strongly defined in pattern or colours. The pattern appeals strongly to the typical form, although occasional specimens exhibit markings that tend to place them as intermediate between the Bull Snake of the Central and Western States and the species inhabiting the Pacific Coast region, on which the blotches are smaller and very numerous. This condition tends to render the latter species--P. catenifer--rather doubtful, and points to the advisability of considering it but another variation of P. sayi.

The principal difference between the present variety (bellona) and the typical form consists in the formation of the rostral (nose) plate. With the latter reptile this plate extends upward and is very narrow above; with the former snake (variety bellona), it is more bluntly triangular, and lower on the snout.

Total Length . . . . . 4 ft. 9 inches.

Length of Tail . . . . . 7 1/2 inches.

Diameter of Body . . . . . 1 3/8 inches.

Width of Head . . . . . 1 1/8 inches.

Length of Head . . . . . 1 5/8 inches.