I found this freshly shed snake skin in long grass behind a barn on an old farm. I say it was fresh because it was still relatively soft and pliable, and in perfect condition without a single tear. This skin was a little more than 59 centimeters (23 inches) long, with a mid-body circumference of 6 centimeters. That's pretty slim as snakes go, with an inferred diameter of 3/4 of an inch or so.

This was my first time cutting open and flattening a shed skin, and all the nicks and tears were the result of my inexperience in handling the operation. I soaked the skin in warm water and tried to flatten it out evenly, with some difficulty. Still, the results are sufficient to make measurements and count scales for identification purposes. I scanned the flattened skin (it was stuck to the paper at that point) on a flatbed scanner at 300 dpi. It had a nice sepia toned appearance that preserves the shadow of the skin's colour patterns.

There are two dark lengthwise bands or stripes, each five scales wide which contain a pattern of darker spots that give them a sort of reticulated appearance, separated by a light stripe down the middle of the back about two scales wide. Low on each flank is another lighter stripe a couple of scales wide. The last row of lateral scales adjacent to the wide belly scales is darker. The belly scales are uniformly light in tone.

Apart from the belly, I count 19 rows of scales at mid-body. All are keeled, though this does not show up well on the scans. I think the keeled scales would be more visible as such with conventional photography, they would reflect light better than on a flat scanner.

I think one can see easily where the tail starts - the scales change shape and size rather abruptly. The head itself does not flatten well entirely, the upper lip curled under somewhat. This is the best I could manage on my first attempt at flattening a delicate skin however.

I have never seen a DeKay's Brownsnake (Storeria dekayi), which also apparently occurs in western Pennsylvania, but this skin looks to me to be typical of the Common Garter Snakes that I see often in the neighborhood.