For all the racers living in bottomland, ranges were separated from ledges by areas of wooded hillsides averaging approximately 700 feet across. These relatively unfavorable areas had to be traversed in the course of the semi-annual migrations. Even some of the racers that lived in hilltop fields apparently crossed wooded slopes in order to reach distant hibernation ledges, or else each reached the ledge by a roundabout route although it could have found a ledge much nearer its summer range. For the 124 ledge-to-field and field-to-ledge movements, the median distance was 1030 feet. The sexes were almost equally represented in this sample but the average distance for the 55 males--1425 feet--notably exceeded that for the 69 females--1220 feet. These movements are shown in Fig. 9. McCauley (1945:76) in Maryland described what seemed to be incipient territoriality in a large male racer that remained several hours in a small area, crawling about conspicuously with head raised, seemingly on patrol. When an even larger male racer intruded, the first one aggressively drove him away, but neither paid any attention to a king snake that was also on the area. Other authors have noted the attachment of a racer to a small familiar area. Conant (1938:53) wrote that many of the racers he saw sought shelter in definite retreats. One of these racers was seen resting on top of a brush pile four times in a single afternoon, and each time it followed the same route to the same inaccessible spot beneath the brush. My own observations do not bear out the idea that racers maintain regular territories, since several males may be present within a small area, even in the breeding season. Hostile behavior between males has not been observed by me under natural conditions, and in confinement has been seen only in instances of self defense. Like the racer Conant observed on a brush pile, individuals may linger in the vicinity of a favored shelter or foraging area for periods of hours, but such associations are ephemeral, and soon the snake moves on. In a uniformly favorable habitat a racer may cruise about freely in tall grass or brush. Individuals that I have attempted to follow, after flushing them or releasing them from traps, often covered distances of 100 to 300 feet within periods of a few minutes before I lost them. In such instances I maintained sufficient distance between myself and the snake so that the latter was not actively escaping. Probably the snake was not aware of pursuit in most instances, although I was able to glimpse it through the stems of grass, weeds, or shrubs, or was informed of its course by the swaying tops of grass and other vegetation.