This snake occurs in a wide range of habitats: desert, prairie, scrubland, juniper-grassland, woodland, thornforest, farmland, creek valleys, and sometimes swamps; usually in relatively dry open terrain. It is terrestrial but also climbs into vegetation. It seeks cover in burrows, among rocks, or in vegetation.

Its diet includes a variety of prey; small vertebrates, mammals, birds and their eggs, and many different reptiles such as small lizards, snakes and turtles, in addition to carrion and invertebrates (Hammerson 1999, Reams et al. 2000, Reams and Aucone 2001, Stebbins 2003, Pough et al. 2004). It is oviparous and lays a clutch of four to 20 eggs, which hatch after a period of six to 11 weeks (Behler and King 1979, Stebbins 2003).

This species' large range extends from the Atlantic coast to the Pacific coast of the United States; northern California, Nevada, southwestern Utah, eastern Colorado, southwestern Nebraska, Missouri, Kentucky (formerly), and North Carolina, south to southern Baja California, Sinaloa, Queretaro in Mexico, and the Gulf Coast of United States, and southern Florida (Wilson 1973).

There are many occurrences of this species in protected areas.