Circling of the female racer by the male from time to time in the course of courtship has not been recognized by previous observers as a part of the mating pattern, but Pope (1944:171) described somewhat analogous behavior, probably modified by unnatural conditions of captivity and the crowding of many racers in one cage. Pope, citing earlier observations by Noble, wrote: "When sexually excited, the male blacksnakes dash wildly about before paying court to individual females. In captivity these dashes excite all specimens confined together. A male, after picking out a mate, moves his chin lightly along her back, while undulations run forward along his sides and he extends his tongue now and then. Later he throws the part of his body near his vent over the corresponding part of the female, the two tails sometimes becoming loosely intertwined." Recorded dates of mating for the species are all in spring, but indicate a span of many weeks for the breeding season, and this spread results in part from geographical differences. Published records are as follows: Subspecies _constrictor_ May 12, 1930, in Ohio (Conant, 1938:55) Subspecies _priapus_ May 8, 1921, in Georgia (Wright and Wright, 1957:135) May 9, 1921, in Georgia (Wright and Wright, 1957:135) Subspecies _flaviventris_ May 3, 1931 (two pairs) in Missouri (Boyer and Heinze, 1934:195) April 18, 1936, in Missouri (Anderson, 1942:210) May 12, 1928, in Kansas (Gloyd, 1928:123) Subspecies _mormon_ June 10, 1927, in Utah (Cottam, 1937:229) July 7, 1938, in California (Cunningham, 1959:17) In the course of my live-trapping, I occasionally found more than one racer in a trap. As might be expected from the low yield per trap, such double or multiple captures were relatively rare. Chance, and unusually strategic placement of certain traps were doubtless contributing factors. May and October, being the most productive months for trapping, yielded a high proportion of these combined captures. Some involved an adult and an immature snake, or two adults of the same sex. Eliminating all these, there remain 44 heterosexual captures of adults. These latter captures are significantly concentrated in their seasonal distribution and indicate a spring breeding season; 34 were in May, six were in June and four were in October. Eight of the May records and one June record each involved a trio of snakes--two males and a female in every instance. Distribution of the spring records, grouped in five-day intervals, was as follows: May 11 to May 15: 14 June 5 to June 9: 0 May 16 to May 20: 5 June 10 to June 14: 2 May 21 to May 25: 8 June 15 to June 19: 2 May 26 to May 30: 13 June 20 to June 24: 0 May 31 to June 4: 1 June 25 to June 30: 1