I remember visiting an aunt of mine who lived (still lives) right at the foot of the Blue Ridge Mountains, near Harrisburg, PA. This one particular visit, my uncle told my brother and I to go look around because their neighbors had burned down a chicken house a couple days before, and the snakes that lived under it had scattered around their yard. My brother and I went out looking for them, and actually found several. This was way back in the mid-eighties, and I couldn't have been any older than seven or eight.
Now, I have tried several times to identify these snakes from memory, but it doesn't seem like the answer I'm coming up with makes sense. The snakes were maybe three feet long, and they were brown with a tan stripe going down the center of their backs. The only snake I can think of from that area that fits that description would be a garter or ribbon of some kind, but I never heard of garters eating eggs, and there wasn't (and still isn't) a stream or pond or anything near there. Does it make sense that garters or ribbons would live under a chicken house that wasn't near water? Does anyone have a suggestion as to what they might have been other than Thamnophis?
By the way -- I have asked my uncle, and he remembers the event, but he doesn't know what kind they were.
Any opinions or thoughts would be appreciated. Thanks.
