WIDE DIFFERENCES IN SNAKES 17 



the lachesis and rattlesnake groups, which contain all 

 the really dangerous snakes of America. Doctor Brazil 

 told me that he had conducted many experiments with 

 this interesting snake. It is not very common, and 

 prefers wet places in which to live. It lays eggs, and 

 the female remains coiled above the eggs, the object 

 being apparently not to warm them, but to prevent 

 too great evaporation. It will not eat when moulting, 

 nor in cold weather. Otherwise it will eat a small 

 snake every five or six days, or a big one every 

 fortnight. 



There is the widest difference, both among poisonous 

 and non-poisonous snakes, not alone in nervousness and 

 irascibility, but also in ability to accustom themselves 

 to out-of-the-way surroundings. Many species of non- 

 poisonous snakes which are entirely harmless, to man 

 or to any other animal except their small prey, are 

 nevertheless very vicious and truculent, striking right 

 and left and biting freely on the smallest provocation 

 — this is the case with the species of which the doctor 

 had previously placed a specimen on the table. More- 

 over, many snakes, some entirely harmless and some 

 vicious ones, are so nervous and uneasy that it is with 

 the greatest difficulty they can be induced to eat in 

 captivity, and the slightest disturbance or interference 

 wiU prevent their eating. There are other snakes, how- 

 ever — of which the mussurama is perhaps the best 

 example — which are very good captives, and at the same 

 time very fearless, showing a complete indifference, not 

 only to being observed, but to being handled when they 

 are feeding. 



There is, in the United States, a beautiful and attrac- 

 tive snake, the king-snake, with much the same habits 

 as the mussurama. It is friendly toward mankind, and 



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