CHICKEN SNAKE HOUSE SNAKE. 225 



to attack, kill, and eat a rattlesnake ; indeed, it will assault 

 any member of its family, if not of its own species, even 

 thouo-h but little smaller than itself. It feeds on small 

 quadrupeds, birds, and reptiles ; and few human beings who 

 see it moving amid the shady places it inhabits, would fail 

 to get out of its way as quickly as possible. 



THE CHICKEN SNAKE. 



The bright golden brown chicken snake — marked with nar- 

 row stripes along the back, and from four to seven feet in 

 length — -in spite of its beautiful and fangless mouth, is an un- 

 welcome visitor in farm-houses when it comes as a stranger, 

 for it is apt to carry off fowls from their roost — as well as 

 their eggs — and will eat up a brood of ducklings without 

 ceremony. 



However, as it is of an amiable disposition, it can easily be 

 tamed ; and then, having learned good manners, it becomes 

 a favourite, and recompenses its protectors by killing the rats 

 and mice which frequent their premises. 



THE MILK OR HOUSE SNAKE. 



The beautiful blue house snake — four feet in length, with 

 rows of spots on its side — is often mistaken for the corn snake, 

 its habits being very similar. The lower part of the body is 

 of a silvery white, tesselated with oblong marks of black. 

 The ignorant i'ancy that it sucks the milk from the udders of 

 the cows, and hence its name; though, probably, it has no 

 objection to a little milk, if it finds it in a pan. Its object, 

 however, in entering houses and farms, is to search for mice 

 and insects, on which it in reality feeds, never interfering 

 with the cows or other animals. 



i370) ] .") 



