Natural History of the Racer Coluber constrictor — John Shaqi
Natural History of the Racer Coluber constrictorFitch, Henry S. (Henry Sheldon)
Science
Natural History of the Racer Coluber constrictor
Fitch, Henry S. (Henry Sheldon)
Racer snake
_C. c. anthicus_: In "wooded areas in the vicinity of briar patches or
other brushy undergrowth" (Clark, 1949:249, in northern Louisiana);
"especially grassy uplands" (Fitch, 1949:88, in central Louisiana).
_C. c. stejnegerianus_: Of 291, 94 were in scattered brush, 92 in
sparse brush, 41 in lightly wooded areas, 26 in grassy areas, 24 in
heavy brush, eight in semi-arid places and six in heavily wooded
situations (Auffenberg, 1949:55, in southern Texas).
_C. c. mormon_: In "thin brush skirting open prairie land" (Lord,
1866:304, British Columbia); cottonwood-willow and water margin
habitats in prairie (Dice, 1916:310-312, in eastern Washington);
"grass; amid water cress; bank of small ditch near meadow; barley
field; sandy ground covered with rocks and driftwood; among sedges; in
sagebrush; swimming in irrigation ditch" (Grinnell, Dixon and
Linsdale, 1930:149, in northeastern California); low foothills, around
the fields, and in the timber and brush along the canyon bottoms
(Woodbury, 1931:75, in Utah); "open woods of Garry oak and poison oak,
on grassy slopes, in chaparral, and in grain or hay fields" (Fitch,
1936:644, in southwestern Oregon); "low hot canyons where it was found
to occupy areas having rather dry, rocky hills" (Ferguson, 1952:68, in
northeastern Oregon).
_C. c. flaviventris_: Pastures, meadows, and fields (Hurter, 1911:170,
in Missouri); "usually frequents dry open fields, although it is often
found in bushes or cut-over land which has grown up into thickets"
(Ortenburger, 1928:181); "pasture lands and on hill sides" (Peters,
1942:183, in Illinois); "along the levees in the salt marshes" (Liner,
1954:82, in southern Louisiana); "common in both prairie and woodland
habitat" (Smith, 1947:34, in east-central Illinois); Flood plain, sand
around sage-sumac brush, rocky slopes (Fouquette and Lindsay,
1955:411, in northwestern Texas).
Several observers have described the habitat in Kansas as follows:
"grassy valleys and thinly wooded hillsides" (Burt, 1927:5); "moist
and dry habitats, in wooded areas, and in prairies" (Smith, 1956:237);
Oak-walnut hillside forest, cultivated field, buckbrush-sumac, prairie
(Clarke, 1958:22).
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