J. Rodgers Mitchell's Caverna, 4508 ft., Providence Mts., San Bernardinos Co., Calif. June 9, 1938 Dorsal head scales: Mr. Mitchell also showed me two skins of Rhinocilium and one of Pitruphish. The gopher snake, he boasted, is 6 ft. long. I didn't mention that the skin of a 5 ft. snake would probably stretol to 6 ft., even if carefully removed. The Rhinocilium, he called ball snake and on the way up the canyon behind the house he told me why they were called ball snakes. When attacked by other snakes, or otherwise excited, they roll up into a compact ball. Once, Mr. Mitchell had a man working for him who did not believe that the snake would roll up in a ball. However, one day while working somewhere around the place, Mr. Mitchell found one. At first, it tried to get away, but he threw some dirt on it and otherwise teased it, and it rolled up into a ball. The skeptical man was called, and Mr. Mitchell threw him the ball. The suggestion was then dropped that they go down to the cave, get some bats and have a ball game. I found Bufo punctatus in the mouth of the cave from which Mitchell's main tunnel source of water runs. Mr. Mitchell said that yesterday a large mountain rattler had been seen in the mouth of the tunnel. Me, Johnson, Orvey and I looked went into two