328 



CIVIC BIOLOGY 



The two coral snakes complete the list of venomous species for the 

 United States. These snakes do not in the least resemble the rattlers 

 and moccasins. Their heads are slender, not broad and spear-shaped ; 



the pupil of the eye is round 

 and there is no pit between 

 the eye and the nostril. They 

 look so harmless that, as Horn- 

 aday says, " it is difficult to see 

 how anyone can be bitten by 

 this serpent without having it 

 done by special appointment." 

 This is all the more reason 

 for having it definitely known 

 that these snakes are venom- 



Fio. 161. Use of forked stick and noose 

 in catching a snake 



ous. They belong to the same 

 family (Elapidce) as the deadly 

 king cobra of India. They are 



instantly recognized by the brilliant yellow, red, and black rings that 

 encircle the body from the head to the tip of the tail. The two species 

 are the harlequin snake (Elaps /Wrw.s), which ranges from South 



FIG. 162. Coral, or harlequin, snake, with yellow band around head and 

 also between the red and black bands of the body 



After Ditmars 



Carolina throughout the Gulf states to Texas, and northward up the 

 Mississippi to southern Indiana, a persistent ground dweller, most 

 often seen when turned out of the furrow by the plow, and the 

 Sonoran coral snake (E. euryxanthus), confined to Arizona, New Mexico, 

 and northern Mexico. 



