Night Snake

• Scientific Name: Hypsiglena Torquata
• Common Name: Night Snake
• Description: Identification: 12 - 26 in. (30-66 cm). A pale gray, light brown, or beige snake with dark gray or brown blotches on back and sides, and usually a pair of large dark brown blotches on neck. Neck markings vary considerably. Blotches may be connected, sometimes in a group of three, or occasionally absent. A black or dark brown bar behind the eye contrasts with whitish upper labials. Belly yellowish or white. Head rather flat, pupils vertical, scales smooth, in 19 - 21 rows at mid body. Anal divided. East lizards, including their eggs, (side blotched lizards seem especially favored), small snakes (blind snakes, rattlers, and others), frogs, and salamanders, which it subdues by injecting venom with enlarged teeth toward back of upper jaw.
• References: Excerpts from A FIELD GUIDE TO WESTERN REPTILES AND AMPHIBIANS, 3/e by Robert C. Stebbins. Copyright (c) 2003 by Robert C. Stebbins. Reproduced by permission of Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
• Diet: lizards, frogs, snakes, insects, amphisbaenians
• Size: 10" to 26"