CLASS III. REPTILIA: ORDER 4. OPIIIDIA. 401 



a stand, and with gleaming eyes brandish its tongue, seeming, like a forked flame, to threaten 

 the intruder. If a person, under such circumstances, takes to flight, the serpent will often o-ive 

 chase, and sometimes, it is said, has coiled itself around the legs of the fugitive, and brought 

 him to the ground. It is said, also, to kill its prey by coiling around it and crushing it to death, 

 as is done by the boa-constrictor ; this does not appear to be correct, but as the snake has been 

 found coiled around the feet and bodies of children, many fearful stories of its attempts to strangle 

 them have been told. There is a popular idea that there is a variety of great swiftness, which fre- 

 quently gives chase to man, to which the name Racer has been given. This is no doubt a mistake. 

 The power of fascinating birds has been attributed to the black snake, but without foundation. The 

 following vivid account of a deadly battle between two serpents, one of this kind and the other 

 a common water-snake, is furnished by an English emigrant, who had settled in the West : 



" As I was one day sitting, solitary and pensive, in this primitive arbor, my attention was en- 

 gaged by a strange sort of rustling noise at some paces distant. 1 looked all around without dis- 

 tinguishing any thing, until I climbed up one of my great hemp-stalks, when, to my astonishment, 

 I beheld two snakes of a considerable length, the one pursuing the other with great celerity 

 through a hemp-stubble field. The aggressor was of the black kind, six feet long ; the fugitive 

 was a water-snake, nearly of equal dimensions. They soon met, and, in the fury of their first 

 encounter, appeared in an instant firmly twisted together ; and while their united tails beat the 

 ground, they mutually tried, with open jaws, to lacerate each other. What a fell aspect did 

 they present ! Their heads were compressed to a very small size ; their eyes flashed fire ; but, 

 after this conflict had lasted about five minutes, the second found means to disenofao-e itself from 

 the first, and hurried toward the ditch. Its antagonist instantly assumed a new posture, and, 

 half creeping, half erect, with a majestic mien, overtook and attacked the other again, which 

 placed itself in a similar attitude, and prepared to resist. The scene was uncommon and beauti- 

 ful ; for, thus opposed, they fought with their jaws, biting each other with the utmost rage ; but 

 notwithstanding this appearance of mutual courage and fury, the water-snake still seemed desirous 

 of retreating toward the ditch, its natural element. This was no sooner perceived by the keen- 

 eyed black one, than, twisting its tail twice round a stalk of hemp, and seizing its adversary by 

 the throat, not by means of its jaws, but by twisting its own neck twice round that of the water- 

 snake, he pulled it back from the ditch. To prevent a defeat, the latter took hold likewise of a 

 stalk on the bank, and, by the acquisition of that point of resistance, became a match for his 

 fierce antagonist. Strange was this to behold : two great snakes strongly adhering to the ground, 

 mutually fastened together by means of the writhings which lashed them to each other, and 

 stretched at their full length ; they pulled, but pulled in vain ; and in the moments of greatest 

 exertion, that part of their bodies which was entwined seemed extremely small, while the rest 

 appeared inflated, and now and then convulsed with strong undulations, rapidly following each 

 other. Their eyes appeared on fire, and ready to start out of their heads. At one time the con- 

 flict seemed decided: the water-snake bent itself into great folds, and by that operation rendered 

 the other more than commonly outstretched ; the next minute the new struggles of the black 

 one gained an unexpected superiority ; it acquired two great folds likewise, which necessarily 

 extended the body of its adversary, in proportion as it had contracted its own. These eft'orts 

 were alternate ; victory seemed doubtful, inclining sometimes to one side, sometimes to the other, 

 until at last the stalk to which the black snake was fastened suddenly gave way, and, in conse- 

 quence of this accident, they both plunged into the ditch. The water did not extinguish their 

 vindictive rage, for by their agitations I could still trace, though I could not distinguish their 

 attacks. They soon reappeared on the surface, twisted together as in their first onset ; but the 

 black snake seemed to retain its wonted superiority ; for its head was exactly fixed above that 

 of the other, which it incessantly pressed down under the water, until its opponent was stifled 

 and sank. The victor no sooner perceived its enemy incapable of further resistance, than, aban- 

 doning it to the current, it returned to the shore and disappeared." 



The Coluber ohsoletus is five feet long ; the anterior half of the body black above, with a line 

 of red spots ; the posterior part lead-color ; beneath white, tinged with yellowish-red. Common 

 in the vicinity of Council Bluff. 



Vol. II.— 51. 



