SNAKES AND SNAKE STORIES 403 



though his hold might not have been the best, it 

 must have required phenomenal strength on the 

 part of the snake to pull loose from his grasp. I 

 would have been more surprised at this and in- 

 clined to doubt it were it not for the fact that 

 last summer I grasped a water snake, which was 

 creeping under a rock, by the tail a'ld attempted 

 to hold it until some one should remove the stone ; 

 but the snake pulled so hard that it left the tail 

 in my grasp and itself disappeared under the stone. 

 I have never heard that the water snake has been 

 noted for its strength, but I have since discovered 

 that this snake can squeeze with more power than 

 any snake of its size which I have handled. 

 When coiled around one's wrist the common, 

 banded water snake "Moccasin," by which 

 I mean the Tropidonotus fasciatus sipedon, 

 the common water snake of the Northeast, 

 can coil so tightly and use such muscular force as 

 to be very uncomfortable. It can also make an 

 ugly bite, although I have been careful not to 

 have any personal experience in this line. They 

 are not poisonous, but I do not enjoy being bitten 

 just for the fun of the thing even by non-poisonous 

 serpents. In the colored plate accompanying this 

 chapter the reader will see drawings of the young 

 water snake which was alive when taken from the 

 egg, also a colored picture of the eggs, as 

 they appeared when taken from the body 

 of the snake, like a string of big amber 

 beads, and a separate drawing of one egg 



