378 NATURAL HISTORY. 



Further north is a near relative of the form just mentioned, a species 

 which glories in a superabundance of names. Under some one of them. — 

 house-snake, milk-snake, thunder-and-lightning snake, or chicken-snake. — 

 it is known to all. It is bold and fearless, and is fond of lurking about 

 the haunts <>!' man. where it does an immense amount of good in devouring 

 vermin of all sorts. Far more terrific in appearance is the blowing-snake. 

 or hog-nosed viper. When one meets it in the fields, it does not try to 

 escape, but flattens out its head and body so that the former has the most 

 vicious appearance, and strongly recalls one of the poisonous serpents. 

 The animal seems all ready to bite, and nine out of ten will flee before it. 

 Vet it is one of the most harmless forms known. It will rarely strike, 

 and even when it docs, it will do no harm; for it has no poison-glands, 

 and its teeth are too weak to do more than scratch the skin. The name 

 blowing-snake refers to the noise the species makes at the mating season 

 as well as when attacked. 



But lew persons can see beauty in a snake, and yet our common green 

 snake, its skin as green as the grass in which it lives, is really a beauty. 

 It is a most harmless form, and can readily be tamed and handled without 

 its showing the slightest annoyance. Like many another snake it burrows 

 into the ground to pass the winter, and in this act it is extremely social ; 

 for where one is found, others may be confidently looked for. Once the 

 writer took part in digging out a number of these from a side-hill, where 

 they had been spending the winter. There seemed to be no end of them. 

 From a square rod no less than three hundred were brought to light, there 

 being sometimes a dozen, sometimes fifty, in a compact bunch just as 

 though they had crawled together for mutual warmth. 



The black snakes, or racers, are larger than the green snakes just 

 mentioned, and are far less pleasant creatures on account of their size and 

 strength. They can run with the greatest rapidity, they are good climbers, 

 and they crush their prey in exactly the same way as do the largest 

 pythons ami boas of the tropics. They have but little fear, and will some- 

 times even chase children, as the writer knows of his own experience. It 

 is to the negroes that we must go for superstitious ideas about snakes. 

 They call the common snake the 'doctor-snake,' and assure us that when 

 the rattler kills any other snake, the 'doctor' rubs against the body and 

 immediately brings it to life. Of the nearly allied coach-whip snake, they 

 say that it can whip a man to death. 



We have alluded several time- t<> the crushing powers of snakes; 

 and we introduce an account of the pine-snake, or bull-snake, which 

 barely reaches north of 'Mason and Dixon's line.' with Dr. Lockwood's 

 description of the way in which it kills its prey. Due allowance being 



