134 CHAPTERS ON THE NATURAL HISTORY 



Professor Drimimond gives a good instance of this in his work 

 upon tropical Africa. " One of the most beautiful and ornate of 

 all the tropical reptiles is the puff-adder. This animal, the bite 

 of which is certain death, is from three to five feet long and dis- 

 proportionately thick, being in some parts almost as thick as the 

 lower part of the thigh. The whole body is ornamented with 

 strange devices in green, yellow, and black; and lying in a mu- 

 seum its glittering coils certainly form a most striking object. 

 But in nature the puff-adder has a very different background. 

 It is essentially a forest animal, its true habitat being among the 

 fallen leaves in the deep shade of the trees by the banks of 

 streams. Now, in such a position, at the distance of a foot or 

 two, its appearance so exactly resembles the forest bed as to be 

 almost indistinguishable from it." 



Our brilliantly colored little Coral snake of the Southern 

 States (Elaps) is also very conspicuous with its shiny transverse 

 bands of alternate red and black; but this serves a very different 

 purpose, and is to be treated under the subject of " Warning Col- 

 oration," a matter our space will not admit of touching upon in 

 this chapter. 



While engaged last spring (1896) in making photographic pic- 

 tures of various kinds of animals, snakes among the others were 

 by no means overlooked or neglected. In using the word animal 

 here I do so in its zoological sense, for when a naturalist speaks 

 of an animal, he may or he may not mean a mammal, which is the 

 ordinary application of the term, but any organized form from 

 those found in the lowest orders to the highest, including even 

 man. As thus applied, not only are mammals spoken of ns ani- 

 mals, but such types as birds, frogs, or fish, and the like. 



My first attempts at photographing snakes were made some 

 five or six years ago, when several fairly good pictures of the 

 Blowing viper (H etc rod on) were made; but these were by no 

 means so good as those obtained last May, at which time various 

 other species were taken. 



During the year just mentioned above, there occurred about 

 the city of Washington, in the District of Columbia, an unusual 

 number of the snake known as the Blotched King snake; more, 

 indeed, than any of this species that had ever been noticed in 

 this locality in former years. It is a harmless snake, that may 

 attain the length of some thirty inches, or rather more, and is 

 characterized by having a darkish body, lighter beneath, and 



