Herpetofauna: One Life's List

Coluber constrictor foxii
Blue Racer

Kankakee Co., Illinois. September 16, 1996

When I was a lad growing up in Missouri we called the local snakes "blue racers".  Getting my first Conant's Field Guide for Christmas my twelfth year, I found I was in error - these snakes were technically "Eastern Yellowbelly Racers" (flaviventris), but none from my area had yellow bellies.

At any rate, I found my first 'True Blue' up in the sand country in northeastern Illinois.  It was actually a pair, which for me at least, is not unusual, having found most species of Coluber two at a time.

The juvenile foxii pictured here was found in the sand hills along the Illinois River near Havana, and the adult is from Kankakee Co., Illinois.  This specimen is an exceptionally 'blue' Blue Racer.