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THE TRANSITION TO LAND 



person quite sick, so first-aid treatment should be given following their 

 bite. 



Another very beautiful snake, the coral, is the fourth and final veno- 

 mous one found in the United States. It is not a pit viper ; it has a 

 round pupil, there is no pit, and the head is not puffed out where it joins 

 the body. However, it can easily be recognized by the glossy red and 

 black bands, bordered by smaller yellow bands that run around the body. 

 Corals are very gentle snakes, like the copperheads, and the author 

 knows of two cases where they were mistaken for the harmless king 

 snake and were picked up and handled for quite some time before the 

 handlers realized they were dealing with a poisonous snake. Nearly all 

 bites are received when it is stepped on. The coral is a member of the 



Photo by Winchester 



Fig. 26.17. A coral snake. This beautiful little snake has a highly potent poison. It 

 is related to the cobra, with short erect fangs, and must bite, rather than strike, to 

 inject its poison. It is not vicious, and comparatively few people in the United States 

 are bitten by coral snakes. The letters indicate the sequence of the red, yellow, and 



black bands around the body. 



cobra family and this family has short erect fangs, rather than the long 

 retractible fangs like the pit vipers. Therefore, it does not strike, but 

 actually grabs the skin with its mouth and forces the fangs through the 

 skin with a biting motion. Ordinary trousers seem sufficiently thick to 

 protect the legs from its bite. The coral is small, seldom more than 

 eighteen inches long, slender and does not inject enough poison to cause 

 death in most cases. It has a nerve poison that works differently from 

 the pit viper poison that destroys the blood. A person that is bitten may 

 go blind temporarily and have difficulty in breathing and carrying out 

 the other body activities controlled by the nerves. 



