110 



SERPENTS 



COPPERHEAD. 



THE COPPERHEAD 1 is a rather short and small serpent, 

 seldom exceeding three feet in length. Its colors look like 

 two shades of copper broad bands of old copper laid on a 

 background of new copper. When the skin is new and fresh, 

 or when a specimen has been reared in the shadows of cap- 

 tivity, this serpent is beautiful. Strangely enough, it is in 



some respects the di- 

 rect opposite of its 

 nearest relative, the 

 water moccasin. 



The Copperhead is 

 a serpent of the woods 

 and rocks, and is not 

 found in open grass 

 lands. It is found 

 from Indiana eastward (but not northward) to the Atlantic 

 coast, and well up into New England. It ranges southwest- 

 ward to Texas, and in different portions of its home it is 

 known as the Pilot-Snake, Upland "Moccasin" and Deaf 

 "Adder" It is decidedly poisonous, and its venom is second 

 in virulence only to that of the rattlesnake, 



In captivity, the food of this species consists of small 

 mammals, young birds and frogs. It brings forth its young 

 alive, and the usual number is between 7 and 9. 



THE WATER MOCCASIN, or CoTTON-Mouxn, 2 is the ugliest 

 snake in North America. Its body is about as lithe and 

 graceful as a Bologna sausage, and its skin resembles the sur- 

 face of sun-cracked mud. It is so ugly that stuffing it with 



1 An-cis'tro-don con-tor'trix. 2 An-cis'tro-don pis-ci-vo'ras. 



