286 ROCHESTER ACADEMY OK SCIENCE. [May 28, 



May 28, 1S94. 



STATED MEETING. 



The President, Professor H. L. Fairchild, in the chair. 

 Thirty persons present. 

 The following paper was read : 

 NOTES ON OPHIDIANS OF THE SOUTHERN STATES. 

 By F. W. Warner. 



A person accustomed to out door life in the South must become 

 more or less familiar with the southern serpents. The warm sun, the 

 softer atmosphere and the rank vegetation are peculiarly favorable to 

 their existence. The sinuous lines of the serpents are seen in the 

 streams, they are continually crossing one's path, and the planter as 

 he IS turnmg over the soil is constantly dislodging them from their 

 holes. The number of the serpents which are encountered is not so 

 much a matter of surprise as their great variety. They are large and 

 small, long and short, venomous and innocuous. There are ground 

 snakes, tree snakes, water snakes, sand snakes and burrowing snakes. 

 The serpents encountered are frequently new species, which those who 

 are best informed in snake lore can at once neither name nor classify. 

 This fact is not so strange when it is known that there are i,8oo 

 species of serpents described and named. 



All of the ophidians are not necessarily our natural enemies. 

 Some of them seem to be desirous of living on friendly terms with 

 man, and are even capable of being domesticated ; others are 

 unfriendly and aggressive, but the great mass of them desire to keep 

 away from human habitations and simply want to be let alone. 



We encounter these limbless denizens of meadow and forest in 

 all colors of skin. Some are repulsive looking, with loose and flabby 

 dress, coarse, dull, or black, with light colored lining and reveals. Some 

 prefer solid colors and wear a jacket of brilliant red, green or yellow, 

 with a vest of lighter hues. Others dress in stripes with a striking 

 effect of dark and light in strong contrast. Some express a taste for 

 plaids, and wear a handsome plaid coat with a yellow waistcoat and 

 red tie. Again others are dressed in Scotch plaids with a singularly 

 harmonious shading of red, green and brown. Then there is a great 

 variety of odd figures worked into the ophidian wardrobe, polka dots, 

 diamonds, rings, ovals, and various nondescript figures. 



