Gray Coluber — Part 2

Coluber obsoletus, variety confinis, (B. & G.)

When an egg of the same batch is opened two weeks later the young snake is found to be perfectly formed and exhibiting a distinct pattern. The eggs hatch six or eight weeks after deposit.

A freshly hatched snake of this variety is about 12 1/2 inches long. So different is the pattern from that of the adult that the novice might reasonably pronounce it to be an entirely different reptile. Indeed the pattern is exactly the reverse from the make-up of the mature snake.

The little snake emerges from the egg in August or early in September and the pattern remains much the same until well into the following summer, by which time the reptile has increased from a foot in length to a measurement of about a yard. The body has acquired the characteristic yellow of the parent, although this ground-colour is possibly darker than with maturity. Along the borders of the larger blotches of the back run two smoky and indistinct stripes. Between the blotches on the sides has appeared a dull, smoky hue, indistinctly fusing these together. Although the stripes of the parent have thus intimated their presence, the reptile still presents a blotched aspect quite different from the parent. It yet remains, and essentially, a spotted snake. In the late spring of the next year it will be observed to be much altered. The spots of the sides have been obliterated under a dark and unbroken band. On each side of the large saddles of the back--now of a pale olive hue--is a distinct and dark band. At this stage the reptile may be said to display the patterns of both the young and adult phases. From this period, the ground-colour steadily becomes paler, the blotches more obscure and the bands more vivid. The length of time, to complete this transition, varies with the individual. Captivity retards the process. The writer believes that the wild reptile has completed the change within a period of slightly less than three years. A captive specimen, which upon arrival showed both the spots and stripes, changed its pattern considerably by the fading of the former, during eight months' time, when, unfortunately, it was killed by a larger snake and the observations brought to a close.

The length of the adult Four-banded Coluber is slightly over five feet and usually specimens of this size are striped on a body-colour of uniform yellow. At the time of writing, however, an interesting individual is at hand. It is nearly six feet in length, and strikingly blotched, while it displays the stripes as well. Two other specimens, neither over three and a half feet long, are banded and show no traces of the blotches. These exceptions may be accounted for by the influence of certain food on the snake's growth. The large (blotched) specimen, probably hatched in a locality where food for all stages of its growth was plentiful and it so rapidly increased in size that the dimensions of a large, adult individual were attained before the pattern had been given sufficient time to go through its transition. The small snakes, to the contrary, evidently hatched in a locality offering little variety of food; their growth was thus stunted although time effected the change in colouration.

It is from the pattern of the young of the Four-banded Coluber, that we trace the relationship of this snake to the Pilot Blacksnake, which, as has been explained, appears dark brown when examined from certain angles in a brilliant sunlight and exhibits traces of four dark bands.

Total Length . . . . . 5 feet 2 inches.

Length of Tail. . . . . . 12 inches.

Greatest Diameter . . . . . 1 1/2 inches.

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

Length of Head . . . . . 1 3/4 inches.

Habits of the Chicken Snake

This snake is quite arboreal in habits. The writer has observed specimens at a considerable height, in large, live-oak trees. The majority of the specimens captured were in trees or among the rafters of cabins. One was discovered coiled in a hollow of a live-oak formed by an abrupt forking of the larger branches. This fork in the tree was fully twelve feet from the ground, while the trunk of the tree was straight and smooth for this distance without visible means for the snake to ascend from the ground. The tree was isolated from others and the discovery of the snake was incidental to a search for a mocking bird's nest--a ladder having been placed against the trunk as a means of ascent. Another specimen was seen lying stretched upon a branch at least twenty-five feet from the ground. When pebbles and chips were tossed at the snake, it retreated along the branch to the trunk, which was of considerable diameter, and there glided quickly into a hollow. This snake was seen frequently, sunning upon the same branch. A large snake caught by the writer's guide, was crossing the moist ground of a cypress swamp, which had the reputation of being the lurking place of huge Chicken Snakes. Several other specimens of large size were taken there. All were prowling on the surface of the swamp.