226 



FIRST LESSONS IN ZOOLOGY 



in confinement. A familiar larf^cr snake is the black- 

 snake, or "blue-racer," lustrous pitch-black, general 

 color yreenish below, and with white throat. It is " often 

 found in the neighborhood of water, and is particularly 

 partial to the thickets of alders, where it can hunt for 

 toads, mice, and birds, and, being an excellent climber, 

 it is often seen among the branches of small trees and 

 bushes, hunting for young birds in the nest. " The chain- 

 snake of the Southeast and the king-snake (fig. 1S5) of the 

 Central States are beautiful, lustrous, black-and-yellow- 



Yir. 185. — A king-snake, Lampropeltis hovlii. (Photograpli from life by 

 J. O. Snyder.) 



spotted snakes, which feed not only on lizards, salaman- 

 ders, small birds, and mice, but also on other snakes. 

 The king-snake should be protected in regions infested by 

 "rattlers." The spreading-adder, or blowing-viper, a 

 common snake in the h.astern States, brownish or red- 

 dish, with dark dorsal and lateral blotches, depresses and 

 expands the head when angry, hissing and threatening. 

 Desijitc the pojndar belief in its poisonovis nature this 

 ugly reptile is quite harmless. It specially infests dry 

 and sandy places. 



With the exception of the coral- or bead-snake, a rather 

 small, jet-black snake, ^\■ith seventeen broad, yellow- 

 bordered crimson rings, found in the Southern States the 



