SNAKES. 



I. SNAKES IN (JKXERAL. 



Snake season will soon be here once more. Even 

 now* the editors of the country newspapers are poring 

 over the musty pages of some ancient natural history 

 or seeking amidst those still more musty convolutions 

 of their brains in which their natural history facts are 

 stored, to find a basis for one of the annual snake lies, 

 which, like the -dandelions, are sure to appear when 

 spring approacheth. For next to " fish stories," news- 

 paper "snake lies" are sure to be appreciated and 

 believed in by a certain class of readers. True it is 

 that the editor or reporter does not always clothe the 

 he in all its after habiliments, but each reader on 

 repeating it to his neighbor adds a garment, until out 

 of "whole cloth," as it were, the lie becomes a finished' 

 product and is repeated so often that it is finally 

 believed as gospel truth. 



Examples of such snake lies are the " hoop snake " 

 which, taking its tail in its mouth, rolls rapidly on- 

 ward until it strikes a tree into which 

 Some Common ., -i -, , -i , T 



Snake Lies darts its tail, poisoning the sap and 



causing the death of the tree; the 

 "glass snake " which, when approached, breaks into a 

 score of pieces, and when unobserved quickly joins 



'Torre Haute Gazette, April I'd, 1892. 



(27) 



