Watertown Republican

SNAKES.
Some Curious Misapprehensions About the Hated Reptile—Snakes that are Useful to Farmers and Others.
From the Country Gentleman.

Snakes are peculiar animals—without arms, legs or feet, and without wings or fins; yet how gracefully and swiftly some of them can move!

Most persons consider them all horrible and disgusting creatures. I fear they speak from prejudice, without much reason. The almost universal hatred for the serpent tribe has, with few exceptions, arisen from the teachings of the third chapter of Genesis. That the word serpent is used throughout the chapter to designate the instrument of Satan used in the temptation and fall, is plain enough, but no man has yet, or ever will be able to prove that the serpent of Genesis is identical with the serpent or snake of the present day. Some writers suppose it to have been a flying dragon, others a winged serpent, and Dr. Adam Clark held the opinion that the animal was an orang-outang. The great masters have generally painted it a serpent with the head of a woman.

If we take the chapter in a literal sense, we must naturally suppose that previous to the serpent's overthrow, it had the power of walking erect, for the curse was:

"Upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life."

If the animal had at one time the power of walking erect or flying, it was not what we at the present day would call a serpent or snake. And that serpents exactly similar in form and habits to the existing species inhabited even the preadamite earth, geological researches have clearly proved.

We know that the serpent goes upon its belly, but we also know that many snakes never swallow any dust at all, for some species of Tropidonotus and other water snakes never seize their prey out of the water. No one has yet discovered a serpent whose chief article of diet is dust: but it must be acknowledged that all serpents, when they capture and swallow an animal upon a dusty surface, must swallow more or less dust, which necessarily adheres to the object. Serpents always swallow their prey whole, and therefore do not carry into their stomachs near so large a quantity of dust as most carnivorous quadrupeds which tear their prey to pieces, and drag it about while eating.

We are also told that the serpent "was more subtle than any beast of the field:" yet in the serpent family we find some of the dullest and most stupid objects of animated nature. What serpent can be compared in subtleness with the elephant, fox or cat? Not one.

I would entreat the farmer and others not to "crush the head" of every serpent one meets. Many species are beneficial in the number of field and meadow mice they destroy, and some of the smaller species feed almost entirely upon insects.

I shall now endeavor to review some of the species of North American snakes, which are pretty and harmless and disgusting and venomous.

There are a few farmers who have not, at times, plowed up the milk snake, Ophibolus doliatue, Linn., var. triangulus, Bole. Is it not beautiful, with its cream-colored coat, marked with chocolate and black blotches? In some parts of the country this is called the "house snake, and is wrongly thought to be venomous. Both names are inappropriate and calculated to mislead, for it neither dwells in houses nor drinks milk. As it is principally found in open fields and meadows, I think clod snake, which is the translation of the generic name Ophibolus, would be a more appropriate name. It is as harmless as a duckling. I, on two occasions, have carried it alive in my hand. The common garter snake, Eutænia sirtalis, Linn., is rather pretty in its black and yellow striped skin: so also is the ring snake, Diadophis punctatus, Linn., with its black body and little white collar. The bead or harlequin snake, Elaps fulvius, Linn., encircled by numerous rings of scarlet, yellow and black, is indeed beautiful, although it is armed with small, erect poison fangs. The scarlet snake, Cemophora coccinea, Blum., is similarly colored, but with cut fangs, consequently harmless. Formerly, the Indian girls of Florida used to twine the bead snake in their hair, thus making a neat and pretty head ornament. Some may think this a horrible fashion, but a snake in the hair is not worse than a bug in the ear—is it? Yet we have often seen bugs hanging to the ears of civilized ladies. However, they are called "Brazilian beetles," not bugs. Willis writes in his poem entitled "Love in a Cottage:"

"You lie down to your shady slumber,
And wake with a bug in your ear."

I suppose the poet intends this to be one of the terrors of rural life. Now, since Dom Pedro's visit has made everything from Brazil so fashionable there is more than one lady who would be happy to—

Awake from her shady slumber,
And put a green bug in her ear
(A bug like a glossy cucumber)
Without ever dreaming of fear!

But to our snakes. We can not omit from the list of pretty serpents the Osceola snake, Osceola elapsoidea, Holb., which is brilliant red above, crossed by pairs of black rings, each enclosing a white one. It is non-venomous. Our well-known green snake Cyclophis vernalis, DeKay, clad in its brilliant green coat, has rather a prepossessing appearance. In the far Southwest and Mexico are found several beautifully marked serpents, mostly small and non-venomous; but as they are only known to me through descriptions and alcoholic specimens, I omit their names.

No venomous serpents in the United States, with the exception of the Elapidæ (bead snakes), can be called beautiful. Among the Crotalidæ (rattlesnakes) we find several neatly and pleasingly marked species, as the Lucifer rattlesnake, Crotalus lucifer, Baird & G., Say's rattlesnake, C. confluentus, Say, the hound rattlesnake, C. molossus, Baird & G., and the little ground rattlesnake, Caudisona miliaria, Linn.; but the shape of the head and body, the deep pit between the eye and nostril, the generally coarse and rough scales, and the malignant expression of the eye of the rattlesnake, thrill us at first sight with a feeling of more or less disgust.

The genus Ancistrodon, Beauvais, to which belong the copperhead, A. contortrix, Linn., and the moccasin, A. piscivorus, Lacepede, are plainly colored (brown or olive), and are by no means attractive serpents.