DeKay's Brownsnake vs. Common Garter Snake

Both are brown, keeled, and turn up in yards and city lots. A Common Garter Snake has pale stripes — one down the middle of the back and one low on each side — with dark checks between them, and dark bars on its lip scales. A DeKay's Brownsnake has no pale stripes: a paler band down the back is edged by two rows of small dark spots, and there is a dark mark on the side of the head. DeKay's is also much smaller, rarely over a foot.

Photographs via iNaturalist under Creative Commons licences; the photographers are credited on the sheet.

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