Image from the Biodiversity Heritage Library.
Contributed by Museum of Vertebrate Zoology, University of California, Berkeley.
| www.biodiversitylibrary.org
Transcription
Greene, H.
1991
September 28 (continued) a subadult lampropeltis pyronelara (602+11gmm,
87g). From ~1030-1730 h Charlie and Dare Halldman (Silver City) and I hiked up the canyon,
racing back ~1430 h at the top of a steep large talus
slide from which Charlie had yesterday taken the C.
willardi I photographed and a small adult C.
lepidus. Along the way we saw several dozen Sceloporus
janovii, a few S. virgatus, perhaps a dozen or
more scats of Urobus americanus (Tony saw a bear too),
and the little pit digging where Mead's Quail look
for buried seeds and tiny tubers. At 1345 h we
found a large adult Crotalus molosses (1020+80mm)
sunning at the edge of boulders near the crest of an
ENE facing slope, from which I palpated an adult
Neotoma that had been swallowed head-first.
The snake never rattled until I released it. At
1350 h we found a 50-60 cm total length C.
molossus basking next to a boulder; it didn't
rattle until pinned, and had no palpable food.
As we walked down the creek bottom (water here
and there), Charlie found a subadult lampropeltis
pyronelara stretched over a rock in the center of
a dry stretch of streambed. It bit, thrashed, &
expelled foul cloacal contents when held. Returning
to camp we learned 5 othe, C. molossus and a
C. lepidus were seen by others. Barney bought
in a large (~1m total length, 1 1/2 pounds)