COLUBER FLAGELLIFORMIS. 109 



bdt only destroys for food. It is inoffensive in its manners, but defends itself with 

 great dexterity when attacked, by twining its long body round the enemy. Bar- 

 tram gives the following account of it: — "I observed a large Hawk on the ground 

 in the middle of the road; when coming up near him, I foimd him bound up by a 

 very long Coach-whip Snake, that had wreathed itself several times round the 

 Hawk's, body, who had but one of his wings at hberty. Beholding their struggles 

 awhile, I alighted off my horse with the intention of parting them; when, on 

 coming up, they mutually agreed to separate, each seeking his own safety, probably 

 considering me as their common enemy." 



General Remarks. Of all the species found east of the Mississippi, the Black 

 Snake (Coluber constrictor) is the only one hitherto known that can be compared 

 with the Coach-whip, in the scales, the disposition of the plates on the head, 

 and in its general form and habits. 



There is great confusion in the works of European Naturalists with regard to 

 this Snake. Catesby first made it kno^vn under the name "Coach-whip Snake," and 

 gave an excellent figure of it — one of the best in his work: yet it has been con- 

 founded with the Chicken Snake, the Black Snake, the Green Snake, and by some 

 Herpetologists has been overlooked altogether. 



Linnseus describes a Coluber filiformis,* which some Naturalists have considered 

 as the Coach-whip Snake, but it agrees with the latter neither in colour, the 

 number of its plates, nor in its geographical distribution. Laurenti next gave a 

 Natrix flagelliformis:t this cannot be our Snake, for he refers to tab. 47 of Catesby, 

 which is the Dryinus mycterizans, and is not found in the United States. Daudin, 

 under his Coluber flagelliformis,:}: adds still more to the confusion; he refers to the 

 mycterizans, and to tab. 57 of Catesby, certainly the Green Snake, which he says 

 is "called by the Anglo-Americans Coach-whip Snake;" — his description, then, of 



* Syst. Nat., vol. i. p. 383. t Synop. Rept, p. 79. 



J Hist. Nat. des Rept, vol. vi. p. 380. 



