In article ,
Patrick Alexander wrote:
In rec.pets.herp Chris McMartin wrote:
"Novice" wrote in message
...
I completely forgot to add that we live in Ontario and that we think it is
either a Fox snake or else a very young missassuaga rattler (as I could
find
no rattle on its tail).

Also look into milk snakes, _Lampropeltis triangulum_ subspecies.

Lampropeltis triangulum triangulum is what it looks like to me,
too.

Me too. The ones I've seen in eastern Ontario look like that.

From the original posting, it looks like this may be in or near Kingston.
I'm pretty sure fox snakes are only found in a few areas of SW Ontario,
hundreds of miles away from you and on teh east shore of Georgian Bay.
Also, Massasauga rattlesnakes only occur in a restricted area around
Georgian Bay, and possibly in a few places in SW Ontario. Both species
have Threatened status both provincially in Ontario and nationally in
Canada.

These eastern milk snakes are often mistaken by the inexperienced for the
two snakes you mention. They don't make things any easier for themselves
by tail-rattling (no rattles, they just do it against dry leaves or some
such), which makes people panic and attack them. :-(

Too bad this one got killed by the lawn mower. I don't know if there
is any way of avoiding that sort of accident.