ALABAMA AMPHIBIANS AND REPTILES, 51 



earmarks by which to recognize them : the broad square 

 jaw and overlapping head shield which forms a pit at 

 the side of the head between the eye and the snout. The 

 seventh is our coral snake, a beautiful creature with red 

 and black bands, separated by yellow rings. 



The coloration of two of our harmless snakes so close- 

 ly resemble this pattern, that a mistake is easily made ; 

 however, by observing the following rule you can never 

 go wrong: in the coral or poisonous snake the red and 

 black bands are separated by narrow yellow rings, and 

 the snout is black; in the harmless snakes the red and 

 yellow bands are separated by narrow black rings, and 

 the snout is yellowish. 



When hunting snakes with my old friend Hurter, I of- 

 ten saw him pick up moccasins and ground-rattlers by 

 hand, he would grab them quickly by the end of the tail, 

 lift them clear of the ground and drop them into his tin 

 bucket. It may be comparatively safe to handle them 

 this way; but I very much prefer the use of the snake 

 pinchers. These I make out of two strips of sound ash 

 wood about three feet long, one half to three quarter inch 

 thick and an inch and a quarter wide. About four 

 inches from one end I bore a hole and bolt the strips to- 

 gether loosely so as to make a pair of tongs similar to 

 the longhandled tongs used by a blacksmith. A little 

 notch cut on the inside of the four-inch ends will make 

 a jaw to grasp and hold any snake around the neck. 



On a collecting trip I always carry a few small but 

 stout canvas bags in which to bring home the catch alive, 

 preferably only one snake in each bag, but at times sev- 

 eral of the same species may be put together in one bag. 

 In the case of frogs and salamanders a sufficient supply 

 of moist soil or moss must be enclosed with the speci- 

 mens to keep them alive. 



At the end of a day's collecting trip the catch must be 

 killed, labeled and prepared for the preserving fluid. 



One by one the specimens are removed from the col- 

 lecting bags and killed by a hypodermic injection of from 

 one teaspoonf ul to one ounce of 40 per cent Formaldehyde 

 according to the size of the animal, for frogs, toads, and 



