SNAKES. 49 



gerous bites. There is little doubt, however, but that 

 it injects a true poison which sometimes causes fatal 

 results, but on account of the smallness of the serpent's 

 mouth and the shortness of its poison fangs, the wound 

 must be inflicted on the more exposed portions of the 

 body, as the fingers or toes. It is hoped that persons 

 in the southern half of Indiana will, in the future, be 

 on the lookout for this snake, that a more definite 

 account of its range in the State may be put on 

 record. 



HARMLESS SNAKES. 



For convenience the twenty-five species of harm- 

 less snakes known to occur in Indiana may be classed 

 aiM-ording to color, habits, etc., into seven groups. 

 Three of the reptiles are seldom found far from ponds 

 or streams, and hence may form 



Group I. The Water Snakes. 



Two of these are quite similar in habits and ap- 

 pearance, the ground color varying from ashy to 

 brown, with a row of thirty or more darker spots on 

 the back between the head and tail, and a row of 

 smaller, similar spo.ts on each side. Scientists distin- 

 guish them, however, by the difference in the number 

 of rows of scales on the back, giving to the rarer one, 

 which has 27 rows, the name of u diamond water 

 snake." 



The other one, which has but 23, rarely 25, rows, is 

 Tropidonotws *>i>l<>,< (L.), one of our most common 

 snakes and popularly known as the " water snake," 

 4 



