Because of some strange compulsion, I had decided that I wanted to photograph the very variable yellow rat snake from every Florida county in which it occurred. This quest would take me roughly over four-fifths of the peninsula, excluding only the northernmost and northwesternmost counties.

Just two nights earlier, with Mike Manfredi, I had started my search of Lake County. An afternoon shower had left the grasses and shrubs spangled with twinkling droplets but the pavement was now dry. Traffic was very light. The sun had dipped nearly to the western horizon but what had promised to be a beautiful sunset had been obscured by an almost solid cloud cover. Within minutes after sunset natricines (water, crayfish, and ribbon snakes) began crossing the road. But no rat snakes, yellow or otherwise, had made an appearance.



That night I was accompanied by Jake Scott. Climatic conditions were a bit different. Roadway and vegetation were both dry and rather than being obscured by a cloud cover the stars twinkled above. The moon was just peeping above the horizon. We made a couple of passes over the 10 mile stretch of road. Traffic had been light but now a car was quickly approaching us. I was watching the oncoming vehicle when Jake hollered "Snake! Yellow!"