Garter Snake

the common, harmless, striped snake of North America. It is found from Canada to Central America, especially in meadows and about water courses. It varies in color from a light green to a dark olive,--almost black in intensity. It is marked by three stripes, one on the back and one along each side. Not infrequently a narrow row of spots runs along each side of the back stripe. The garter snake attains an extreme length of three feet. It is an active animal. It hunts by day and by night. It glides through the grass almost as fast as a person can walk. It swims readily, but it is a poor climber. It lives on insects, frogs, meadow mice, nestlings, and minnows. Its chief foe is the hawk. When attacked or detained it makes a valiant show of fighting, but has the smallest of teeth, and is as harmless as a frog. The female brings forth twenty to eighty young alive, and is believed on uncertain authority to allow them to run down her throat in time of danger. In the autumn the snakes gather in masses and coil up together in old gopher holes and similar places of retreat where they lie torpid till spring. In the spring or early summer the garter snake splits its old skin loose from the head and crawls out of it as from a sack. In addition to the common species there are at least a score of others, one of which is figured in the Mexican coat of arms. See Snake; Viper