398 THE TRANSITION TO LAND 



The king snakes are a highly beneficial group because of the large 

 numbers of rodents that they destroy. They also eat other snakes and 

 seem especially fond of poisonous ones. In Florida, tourists sometimes 

 see fights between king snakes and rattlesnakes. Before the battle, the 

 tourists place bets on one of the two and nearly always pick the vicious 

 looking rattlesnake in preference to the slender docile king snake. How- 

 ever, when placed in the same pen together their dispositions change. 

 The rattler seeks to escape, but the king grabs him, quickly coils about 

 him, and squeezes him to death. Sometimes the king is bitten during 

 the battle, but is immune to the poison and suffers no harm. The rattle- 

 snake may then be eaten. The king snakes are very gentle toward man 

 and make very nice pets that are entirely safe to handle, and they can 

 hardly be recognized as the same pugnacious snake that attacks and 

 destroys our most deadly reptiles without hesitation. 



Probably the most interesting of our snakes is the hognosed snake, 

 also called the spreading adder or blowing viper. If a person suddenly 

 comes upon one it will rear up and spread the skin back of its head which 

 makes it look like a hooded cobra. It blows itself up to more than twice 

 its size and then forces air out of its mouth to produce a hissing noise. 

 It feints as if about to strike. Because of this fierce behavior, most 

 people think it is a deadly reptile ; even its breath is supposed to be 

 poisonous. However, this is all a bluff, for the hognosed snake will make 

 no attempt to bite even if one slaps it in the face. When its bluff does 

 not work, it may "play dead." It will roll over on its back, open its 

 mouth widely, writhe around in the most realistic death agonies and then 

 lie perfectly still. It can then be handled without showing any signs 

 of life, but if placed on the ground with the right side up, it will give 

 itself away by rolling over on its back. It seems to know instinctively 

 that, in order to look dead, an animal should be on its back. The hog- 

 nosed snake makes a nice pet and becomes very gentle after being handled 

 a short time. 



The chicken snake is a member of a group called rat snakes. These 

 are all great destroyers of rodents. The chicken snake will come around 

 barns and chicken houses in search of rodents and sometimes eat eggs 

 and young chickens. They do more good than harm, but farmers, see- 

 ing only the poultry loss, usually dislike them very much. 



The racers are a group of slender, nervous snakes that move quite 

 rapidly. The black snake and the blue racer are common examples. 



It would not be fair to conclude a discussion of snakes without men- 

 tioning snake superstitions. These are so numerous that it will be im- 

 possible to mention them all, but some of those that are widely told will 

 be discussed. 



