150 TEXAS NATURE OBSERVATIONS AND REMINISCENCES. 



As explained, the difference be- 

 tween this venomous moccasin 

 snake and the other types of wa- 

 ter snakes (the genuine moccasin 

 being more of a land than water 

 ■snake), is plainly this: The genu- 

 ine and dangerous moccasin (as 

 seen also in part of this illustra- 

 tion) is a much smaller and more 

 striped snake, with two large and 

 ■curved poison fangs along the 

 upper roof parts of the broad- 

 opened mouth, whilst the other 

 variety of water snake is uniform- 

 ly of a dark, nearly black "mud 

 color," and of much larger size, 

 with absence of the banded, dark 



rest, we went nearly a mile distant 

 along the shady forest bottom, 

 until we reached a small island; 

 and there, amid^st some huge 

 rocks, underbrush and tule jun- 

 gles, a mud-colored snake about 

 five feet long was spread out and 

 was lying partly coiled up, but 

 dead from the shot, and the mo- 

 ment I saw it I said to my friend : 

 "Why, man, you call this a gen- 

 uine moccasin? Not a bit of it." 

 And then we opened the reptile's 

 mouth with a stick and my friend 

 was fully convinced of his error, 

 as the mouth parts showed abso- 

 lutely no poisonous fangs, and 



MoUTHPARTS OF THE GENUINE TEXAS WaTER-MoCCASIN 



(Exposing Four Venom Fangs) 



stripes, and entirely void of poi- 

 son fangs and venom bladder. 

 Now, the incident 1 began relat- 

 ing in the beginning of these 

 notes was exactly similar to the 

 one related some time ago, in one 

 of my old-time reminincences of 

 Mitchel's lake, namely : -A friend 

 of the writer, a few days ago, came 

 to our camp nearly breathless, 

 from a long hike, and excitedly 

 related the following story: 



"He had just killed an enor- 

 mous "moccasin with a broad 

 head" and that he was sure it 

 was a "genuine one." "Well, leav- 

 ing our fishing paraphernalia at 



only a row ot very small grab 

 teeth could be barely discerned. 



Now, a tew words in regard to 

 tie next following illustration: It 

 represents another moccasin speci- 

 men, and it is of special and un- 

 usual interest, as it shows the rep- 

 tile 's abdomen opened and expos- 

 ing- a water rat the snake had de- 

 voured shortly before it was killed 

 by the writer, and photo reproduced. 



The snake was a young 

 specimen, full of fight when en- 

 countered along a small path 

 leading to a spring along some 

 huge ravines and a fine fishing 

 place. I gave it such a lick with 



