Snake confused with Garters - Lined snake

[SilasBannook]

The neighborhood kids brought me the snake below asking what type of snake it was. It kind of has three stripes but it doesn't have the bars around the jaw line, doesn't have a clear demarcation below the lateral stripes, has a surprisingly small head and an equally surprisingly small tail. I know that in Colorado we only have four types of Garters native to our state {wandering, plains, blackneck, and red-sided}. This is neither of those and didn't seem like a morph.

I checked the site for the Colorado Herpetological Society and looked at the list of all the native snakes for the state and found that this little guy is actually a Lined Snake {Tropidoclonion lineatum}. I never knew they existed. Figured I would share with the forum. This guy struck me as an ugly duckling of a Garter snake. Glad he actually fits in perfectly for his species.