Field notes, v1308
Page 157
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)