Physical Description
A medium to large serpent, gray rat snakes (silver racer) typically reach an adult size of 39" to 72" (3.25–6 feet/99 cm-183 cm), however, the record is 84.5"(7.041 ft/2.15m). Unlike other Elaphe obsoleta whose conspicuous juvenile pattern fades into adulthood, gray rat snakes do not undergo drastic ontogenetic changes in color, or markings. These snakes retain the juvenile pattern of dark elongate dorsal blotches separated by four, or more, pale gray body scales, a light gray crown with dark striping that forms an anteriorly facing spearpoint, and a solid band which covers the eyes and extends rearward to the posterior upper labial scales. The venter is usually off-white or pale gray with darker irregular blotches, and a double row of black spots behind the divided anal plate of the vent. The dorsal scale rows around midbody are usually weakly keeled. Because the gray rat snake shares its range with other members of its species, intergrades of black/gray and yellow/gray rat snakes are not uncommon.
Read more about this topic: Gray Rat Snake
Famous quotes containing the words physical and/or description:
“Not too many years ago, a child’s experience was limited by how far he or she could ride a bicycle or by the physical boundaries that parents set. Today ... the real boundaries of a child’s life are set more by the number of available cable channels and videotapes, by the simulated reality of videogames, by the number of megabytes of memory in the home computer. Now kids can go anywhere, as long as they stay inside the electronic bubble.”
—Richard Louv (20th century)
“To give an accurate description of what has never occurred is not merely the proper occupation of the historian, but the inalienable privilege of any man of parts and culture.”
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900)