Gravid females that were kept in captivity in anticipation of their laying usually produced their clutches within a few days. The laying dates of such individuals are shown in the following list. Those with asterisks were from the Harvey County study area, others were from the Reservation and Rockefeller Tract.

June 19, 1961
June 21, 1959
June 23, 1961*
June 26, 1959
June 29-30, 1962*
July 1, 1961
July 4-5, 1962*
July 6, 1955
July 7, 1959*
July 7, 1959*
July 12, 1961
July 15, 1961*
July 18, 1961*
July 20, 1961
August 8, 1960*

A further indication of the period when laying occurs was provided by the appearance of females gravid and progressively more swollen with eggs, then their abrupt disappearance and replacement by thin and wrinkled individuals that obviously were recently parturient. The following records show the course of these events on the Reservation in the years when summer trapping was done with sufficient consistency. These dates provide a rough approximation of the time when laying occurs locally. They indicate a laying season concentrated in a period of approximately three weeks in this locality. Records from published literature also indicate that laying occurs in late June and early July at the latitude of Kansas, but somewhat earlier in the southern United States.

Table 8. Dates When Parturient and Gravid Racers were Captured on
Reservation and Rockefeller Tract in Several Years, Indicating Time of Oviposition

Year1958 1959196019611962
First parturient femaleJune 18June 17June 22June 20June 13
Last gravid femaleJuly 8July 11July 5July 12July 16

Many authors have made statements regarding the size of the clutch in the racer, on the basis of those found in the field, those laid after capture, or those dissected from gravid females. Some of the statements were based upon small but unspecified samples, and are far from the mark. From records accumulated in the course of my own field work, and a summarization of those in published accounts a substantial sample is available showing the usual size of clutch in the area of my study, and the trends of geographic variation in some parts of the range.

C. constrictor (all combined)151 clutches averaged 10.61 (2 to 31) eggs.
C. c. constrictor14 clutches averaged 16.80 (7 to 31) eggs.
C. c. priapus11 clutches averaged 12.60 (7 to 21) eggs.
C. c. mormon43 clutches averaged 5.79 (2 to 13) eggs.
C. c. flaviventris82 clutches averaged 11.78 (5 to 26) eggs.
C. c. stejnegerianus,one clutch contained 10 eggs.

In the foregoing list the sample of C. c. flaviventris may be divided as follows:

Reservation and vicinity: 36 clutches averaged 11.65 (6 to 21) eggs.

Harvey County study area: 21 clutches averaged 12.0 (5 to 18) eggs.

Museum specimens from Kansas: five clutches averaged 9.2 (6 to 14) eggs.

Published records (Kansas, Indiana, Iowa, Louisiana, Missouri, Oklahoma, Texas): 20 clutches averaged 12.5 (5 to 22) eggs.