INTR OD UCTION, 9 



After a time I proposed to write a book about snakes, 

 starting with the stereotyped ideas that they all ' stung ' 

 in some incomprehensible way ; that the larger kinds crushed 

 up horses and cattle like wisps of straw ; and that all, 

 having viciously taken the life of the victim, proceeded with 

 epicurean gusto to lick it all over and smear it with saliva, 

 that it might glide down their throat like an oyster! There 

 are those who to this day believe the same. 



My proposed book was, however, simply to recount some 

 adventures among the snakes which were encountered in 

 our American rambles. It was intended for the amusement 

 of juvenile readers, and to supplement the little work about 

 my pet birds,^ which had met with so kind and encouraging 

 a reception. 



But in order to merely recount an adventure with a 

 snake, some knowledge of the reptile is essential. One 

 must, at least, be sure of the correct name of the 'horrid 

 thing ' which lifted its ' menacing head ' a few feet in front 

 of us; such local names as 'black snake' and 'moccasin 

 snake ' affording no satisfactory information. 



Nor were hasty references to books much more satis- 

 factory. Mr. P. H. Gosse had been over the same ground, 

 gathering many interesting items of natural history ; but in 

 his Letters from Alabama I could not decide on my moccasin 

 snake. From this and his other works, and then from the 

 authors quoted by him, I discovered only that there were 

 many ' black snakes,' some deadly, others harmless. The 

 same with the 'moccasin 'snake, which was now of this colour, 

 now of that. While one writer expatiates on the beauty of 



1 Aunt Jenny s American Pets. By Catherine C. Hopley. London, 1872. 



