THE POISONOUS SNAKES OF NORTH AMERICA. 



By Leoxhard Stejneger. 

 Curator, Department of Beptiles and Batrachians, U. S. National Mmeui 



It is the purpose of the pieseut paper to give in a convenient form 

 a review of our knowledge coueerning- the poisonous snakes of Xorth 

 America; to make the results of the specialists in the field accessible 

 to a larger public; to bring together in one place a summary of an 

 immense literature very often beyond the reach even of the student; 

 to point out where our knowledge is defective, and to suggest new 

 avenues of research. 



Many popular errors will be corrected, while others will be disposed 

 of by a simple statement of facts, from which the reader is expected 

 to draw his own conclusions. No attempt will be made to discuss and 

 controvert the purposely exaggerated stories with which the literature 

 of the day abounds. 



THE so CALLED "HARMLESS" POISONOUS SNAKES. 



If a snake is caught, killed, or seen, and any question raised as to its 

 poisonous or harmless nature, it will be found that the presumption of 

 guilt is against it, and that incontrovertible proof will be required by 

 even highly educated people, not specially informed, before they are 

 willing to believe in its innocence. An expert insisting that the snake 

 in question belongs to a species wholly devoid of poison would probably 

 during this discussion be met with the statement that a serious case of 

 poisoning had once come under the observation of one of the persons 

 present, the result of a bite of this very kind of snake. In spite of the 

 fact thatnothingiscommouerand easierthan misidentitication of snakes, 

 and that consequently the bite might have been caused by a really 

 different kind of snake, the expert would not be in a position to contra- 

 dict the accuracy of the statement, though he might be able to recall to 

 his oi)ponent quite a number of similarly serious cases resulting from 

 the bites of animals unquestionably non-poisonous in the accepted mean- 

 ing of the word. He might quote Livingston's statement that the bite 

 of the large felines is commonly followed by symptoms of poisoning, 

 and he would relate cases of swelling and inflammation of serious 



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