Herpetofauna - One Life's List

Blue Racer
Coluber constrictor foxii

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 Pike County, Illinois, a fairly dark specimen.

 
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