THE SNAKES OF THE ^FARITIME PROVINCES OF CANADA. 13 



ouS is wholly erroneous, but is, in ])art, the cause of the dread 

 with which they are popularly regarded. Many, too, would 

 feel their success and happiness for the year placed in great 

 peril, if the iirst snake of the season were not ruthlessly killed. 

 Between, then, the millstones of popular ignorance and super- 

 stition these poor creatures are being wantonly crushed. It 

 matters not that the objects of their dread and cruelty are 

 among the most artistic attractions of the field and forest; that 

 in beauty of form, brilliancy and harmony of hues and colour, 

 grace of pose and ease of movement, they excel other creatures: 

 the impulse to kill, born of inheritance and ignorance, blunts 

 the feelings and closes the heart to all considerations of pity 

 and mercy. There is, then, urgent need of embodying in our 

 school readers some literature on the subject, for whether we 

 view it from the standpoint of utility and interest, morality or 

 personal comfort, our people are suffering, as well as their help- 

 le-;-; and innocent victims, from this ill-grounded prejudice and 

 lack of knowledge. 



Diadophis punctatus Linnaus. 



Ring-neck Snake. 



The genus Dladophia is confined to North America; and 

 though three specie-) and five or more subspecies have been 

 describeil, they all a[)i)ear to be bat geographical varieties of 

 one well defined form. This is quite natural. The frequency 

 with which ser[)ents shed their epidermis, as well as the innate 

 tendency to harmonize with the salient coloration of their 

 habitat and be afiected by its dryness or humidity, causes cer- 

 tain regional var.eties to vary more or less uniformly, and 

 l)resent nataralists with what seem good specific characters; but 

 the border stock of two such faunal provinces will be found 

 sharing the characters of both and incapable of separation as 

 specie > or even varieties. With the exception of I'J. sirtnlis, D. 

 pnacttUus is tlie most variable of all our snakes. Indeed it is 

 hard to find two specimens agreeing in all the characters deem, 

 ed distinctive of the type of one particular seciion even. Such 

 instal)ility is hard to explain, and may be due to the compara- 



