646 



OPHIDTA 



CHAP. 



easily tame. A gentleman in Berlin, rather too much addicted 

 ti ) making pets of poisonous snakes, had a pair which propagated 

 regularly. When I was a boy he invited me to feed the young 

 Water -Vipers with fishes cut into strips, and I enjoyed this 

 immensely until he warned me not to touch the mother, which 

 mi'dit bite stranj^ers. 



A. contortrix s. Trigonocephaluscenchris (part), the " Moccasin- 

 Snake " or " Copper-head," is one of the few poisonous snakes 



m4D- 



Fig. 178. — Ancistrodon contortrix (Moccasin-Snake or Copper-head). x ^. 



which possess a loreal sliield, i.e. a shield intercalated between 

 the pre-oculars and the nasals ; below it lies the pit. The general 

 colour is yellowi.sh to piiil< or pale brown, with dark brown or 

 red cro.ss-bars or triangular marks. The under surface is 

 yellowish or reddish, speckled with grey or brown, and with a 

 lateral series of large blackish spots. Total lengtli of full-grown 

 specimens about one yard. The Moccasin-Snake ranges from 

 ]\Iassachusetts and Kansas to Northern ^Florida and Texas. It 

 prefers swampy localities or meadows witli high grass, where it 

 hunts f(ir small ^I;iiiiiii,ils .iiul r)irds. 



Lachesis. — Willnmi ,i mttlc. 'Vhe upper surface of the head 

 is covered willi very small shields or with scales. About forty 



