ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY BULLETIN 



1497 



y- 



RED-BELLIED WATER SNAKE 

 The most brilliantly colored aquatic serpent of the South. 



tail. The negroes in the region in which the 

 writer was collectings were insistent upon the 

 same point. We discovered a certain support 

 for their stories in the handling of several 

 freshly-captured mud snakes. The tail termin- 

 ates in a short, but very sharp spine. This is^ 

 however, devoid of any poisonous properties, al- 

 though it is deliberately used by the snake as 

 it struggles to escape from a captor. In seiz- 

 ing one of these reptiles, the snake would throw 

 the body about one's arm and vigorously employ 

 the tail in a series of stinging motions. The 

 spine produced the same sensation as the prick 

 of a needle — causing one involuntarily to start. 

 While in several instances the skin was pierced 

 deep enough to produce a dot of blood, no de- 

 veloping irritation was noted. This is the snake 

 alleged by the negroes to roll like a hoop, then 

 spring at the enem}^ for the purpose of subdu- 

 ing him with the stinging tail. 



We observed specimens of the mud snake ly- 

 ing motionless in the remaining water of rapidly 

 evaporating pools in the swamjo. One big speci- 

 men in particular lurked in a mere puddle, not ' 

 more than a yard in diameter and a foot deep. 

 These snakes are seldom seen prowling, except 



when the pools in the swamps are rapidly dry- 

 ing. They are then to be found wandering over 

 the sun-baked beds of the pools, restlessly 

 searching for remaining water. From these ac- 

 tions and the records of their being exumed 

 from a considerable depth, it would seem that 

 this curious reptile is not altogether subterrane- 

 ous, but at periods evinces habits much like 

 those of the typical water snakes. The other 

 species captured, which is often called the rain- 

 bow snake owing to its bright, longitudinal 

 markings of purple, red and yellow, is of sim- 

 ilar habits. Dead specimens of these snakes 

 were found in the swamps and the discovery of 

 these perfectly fresh carcasses, without a trace 

 of injury, was quite a puzzle. This is the first 

 time the writer remembers finding the bodies of 

 wild serpents that had seemingly died from nat- 

 ural causes. The prowling specimens were eas- 

 ily captured, as their sight is poor and they 

 make little effort to escape. 



In capturing our fine series of typical water 

 snakes, of which about a himdred specimens 

 were shipped North, there was a demand for 

 much hard work, patience and ingenuity. These 

 alert reptiles lurk in the immediate vicinity of 



