SHORT STUDIES OF SNAKES. 283 



pents are to be shunned. I certainly have no desire to 

 encounter a tiger, but I do not therefore hesitate to play 

 with a kitten ; and yet the same style of reasoning which 

 dooms the harmless snake w^ould, if carried out, justify 

 the indiscriminate slaughter of every animal of the cat 

 kind. 



In New Jersey we have two species of serpents 

 the rattlesnake and copper-head the bite of either of 

 which is usually regarded as fatal. These are found only 

 in limited localities, and, even there, the danger to be 

 apprehended from them is more apparent than real. As 

 neither of them comes within the range of ray rambles, 

 there is no reason to fear them; so why should I dread 

 the harmless serpents that may chance to cross my path ? 

 Rather, since they can do no harm, let me seek them out 

 and strive to learn what they have to teach. 



Of the nine or ten species of serpents that are found 

 here, some are formidable in appearance and readily re- 

 sent interference. What they do, however, is in self- 

 defense, as they are never the attacking party. Of 

 course, they will dart their pretty forked tongues ; will 

 hiss, and even snap at you ; but there it ends. Their bite 

 is less harmful than the sting of a mosquito, though the 

 fact is by no means generally recognized and acted upon. 

 What if a full-grown black-snake, when trod on, does 

 wrap a coil or two about your legs ? It can only result 

 in injury to the snake, and all newspaper stories as to 

 the serious harm they do to young children, by coiling 

 about them, may be dismissed as fables. Perhaps a great 

 part of the unjust suspicion that attaches to snakes may 

 be ascribed to the stories of their fierceness related by 

 early travelers. Thus, Campanius, in his " History of New 

 Sweden," describes the rattlesnake as follows : " There 

 is here, also, a large and horrible serpent which is called 



