OUR NATURAL ENEMIES. 
N° animal, perhaps, is so little known and understood 
as the snake. This is not because its study has been 
neglected or overlooked, as our scientific institutions are 
replete with fine collections of most of the reptiles, and 
exhaustive works upon their habits and customs. Yet, not- 
withstanding this, the snake continues to be the subject of 
ever-recurring stories, fabulous in the extreme, that seem 
handed down from generation to generation. Strange to say, 
many of these stories are current among those who, from 
the nature of their lives, would be expected to be well and 
accurately informed on the habits of the animals. Farmers 
and horticulturists are plentiful who religiously believe that 
the Milk Snake, the beautiful Opszbolus clericus, deprives 
milk-giving animals of their supply of milk. A statement 
often seen, and that has many believers, is that the Whip-snake 
of the South seizes its tail—which is supposed to have a 
sting—in its mouth, and rolls away in the form of a wheel, 
stopping suddenly and striking the enemy with the sting. 
Such fables are current by the score, and denial only 
strengthens belief. 
More than a hundred species of snakes, nearly all having 
a wide geographical range, are found in America, north of 
Mexico. They constitute the first order, Ophidia, of reptiles, 
and have long, cylindrical bodies, are footless, without a 
shoulder-girdle, and invested with a coat of scales, which is 
shed in the summer months. Snakes have no eyelids in the 
strict sense of the term. Their eyes are permanently covered 
by a delicate membrane that takes the place of the lid, and 
