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190 IGUANA  •  VOLUME 14, NUMBER 3  •  SEPTEMBER 2007 STEJNEGER

The garter snakes of North America constitute one of the
most difficult group with which the ophiologist has to deal.

The geographical variation is recognized to be excessive, while
at the same time the individual variation is so great as to obscure
the boundaries between the species. The result is that there is a
great diversity of opinion among authors as to the number of
species and the proper limitations of the forms, and while one
is inclined to recognize a long series of species, another will only
allow a very limited number indeed, though admitting numer-
ous “varieties,” at least of some of the species.

While undoubtedly many a slight variety, or even individ-
ual freak, has been designated as a species, on the other hand,
some of the most distinct species have suffered degradation to
mere varieties or subspecies.

The Thamnophis butleri of Cope is an example of this. In 1889
Prof. Cope described a single specimen from Richmond, Ind.,
under the above name, dedicating it to Amos W. Butler. In describ-
ing it he stated expressly that “it is remarkably distinct from every-
thing which occurs in the United States, and has only a superficial
resemblance to the E. flavilabris2, Cope, of Mexico.” This statement
alone should have prevented it from ever becoming associated with
Thamnophis sirtalis as a subspecies until additional material should
establish the incorrectness of Prof. Cope’s standpoint, who, having
himself endeavored to subordinate the various binomials under

other forms as trinomials, would have been able to discover the rela-
tionship with T. sirtalis, if such relationship existed. But no such
additional material has been forthcoming.

It is therefore with great satisfaction that I announce that a
second specimen has recently been obtained and added to the
collection of the National Museum. It was collected by Mr. P.
H. Kirsch, of the U.S. Fish Commission, at Cedar Creek,
Waterloo, Ind., on July 17, 1893. This specimen, No. 21692
U.S.N.M., corroborates everything Prof. Cope said about the
species in the original description and substantiates the charac-
ters relied upon for its separation. The number and size of the
temporals (1+1) is the same, and the lateral stripe involves dis-
tinctly the second, third, and fourth scale rows. The size and
shape of the head is also quite characteristic, it being remarkably
small and conical. Moreover, the eye is proportionately much
smaller than in any of our Thamnophis species, with the excep-
tion of T. leptocephalus3 and T. vagrans4.

This smallness of the eye is so striking, and it reminds one
so much of the last-mentioned species, that I have a strong sus-
picion that the specimen which E. W. Nelson collected near
Chicago, Ill., in 1874, and identified with T. vagrans,* was, in
reality, a third specimen of the rare T. butleri, about the geo-
graphical range of which we can at present only guess. It is
almost needless to add that T. vagrans does not occur in Illinois.

For the sake of completeness I add the synonymy of the
species which is the subject of the present article.
1889.—Eutania butleri, COPE, Proc. U.S. Nat. Mus., XI, 1888, p. 399.
1892.—Eutania butlerii, COPE, Proc. U.S. Nat. Mus., XIV,
1891, p. 651.—Eutania butlerii, HAY, Batr. Rept. Indiana, p.
120 (1892).
1893.—Tropidonotus ordinates var. butleri, BOULENGER, Cat.
Snakes Brit. Mus., I, p. 212.

H I S T O R I C A L  P E R S P E C T I V E S

Notes on Butler’s Garter Snake1

Leonhard Stejneger

Butler’s Garter Snake (Thamnophis butleri) serves as an effective illus-
tration of the ever-changing nature of classification, but, in addition,
has recently been the focus of a political controversy regarding the pro-
tected status of disjunct populations in Wisconsin (see Aprill. 2007.
Iguana 14: 94–99).

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At one time, Edward Drinker Cope, an esteemed herpetologist of the
late 19th Century, sought to subsume a number of garter snakes as
subspecies of the Common Garter Snake (Thamnophis sirtalis), illus-
trated here. Leonhard Stejneger’s short note demonstrated that this
approach was erroneous. 

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1 Reprinted from the Proceedings of the U.S. National Museum 17:
593–594 (1895).

2 Eutania flavilabris is recognized today as a synonym of Thamnophis eques.
3 Thamnophis leptocephalus is recognized today as a synonym of

Thamnophis ordinoides.
4 Thamnophis vagrans is recognized today as a subspecies of

Thamnophis elegans.

* See Davis and Rice, Bull. Chicago Acad. Sci., I, iii, 1883, p. 30
[from original].

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