I was poking around the front of my house here in St Louis, MO, when I accidentally kicked over a plastic "paving stone", revealing two wriggling creatures that I at first thought were worms.

Instead I think I found a Midland Brown Snake (Storeria dekayi wrightorum) and a Lined Snake (Tropidoclonian lineatum). The Missouri Dept of Conservation website says the Brown snake around here is the Midland subspecies.

Anyway, I'm not great at identifying snakes (or much of anything), so I thought I'd let you guys confirm.

Photos aren't the greatest. And photographing them in a white tub didn't help.

Size reference:



Lined snake:



underside of lined snake:




Brown snake:



I thought briefly about keeping them, but they are too small. I occassionally see lined snakes here in the burbs, but I've never seen a Brown snake here. I relocated them to a leaf pile in the back yard, where they should be safer.

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