270 ZOOLOGY. 
before them, but such is not the experience of herpetologists, with whom the 
case is exactly reversed; the snake here being usually the fugitive, and too 
often escaping by his superior agility, thus also eluding the just claims of 
science to his body. 
The agility with which the black snake can climb trees renders it a 
formidable enemy to young birds and squirrels in their nests. The fabled 
fascination exerted by the serpent in all probability has reference to the 
distress occasioned by his vicinity to a bird with a brood of young, the 
whole of which are sometimes devoured at a meal. It is needless to add, 
after what has already been said on the subject, that the black snakes, and 
all other colubrine snakes of North America, are perfectly harmless. A 
closely allied black species, called Coluber alleghaniensis, attains to a much 
larger size than the Constrictor, individuals of 7 and 8 feet not being very rare. 
This is much more gentle than the other, rarely manifesting any inclination to 
bite, which the more common true black snake is very apt to do. The black 
snakes, as well as some other large colubrine species, often engage in deadly 
battle with the rattlesnakes, and, strange to say, usually come off victorious, 
owing to their-superior agility, and the quickness with which they evade the 
poison thrusts of their antagonists, and secure an opportunity of squeezing them 
to death. 
The type of the genus T'ropidonotus is found in the familiar garter snake, 
T’. sirtalis, the most abundant species in this country. Like all of its genus, 
it is frequently found about the water, but as often on high dry land. Its 
fecundity is very great, as in one instance eighty-one young, of over nine inches 
in length each, were taken from a single female. The water snake of the 
Middle States (7. sipedon) is a species sometimes called moccasin, and wrongly 
dreade:l as venomous, on account of its supposed identity with the species of the 
lowlands of Georgia. Other species are, 7° leberis, dekayi, &c. Pl. 86, fig. 
2, represents the Kuropean 7’ natriz. 
We shall conclude this subject by a brief consideration of some other 
American species with that of an interesting African genus. In addition to 
the colubrines already enumerated, there is the beautiful Coluber vernalis, or 
green snake, found rather abundantly in the Northern and more rarely in the 
Middle States. In the South it is replaced by the beautiful green Leptophis 
estivus. A long, slender, exceedingly swift species of the Southern States 
(Psammophis flagelliformis) is called the whip snake. The diamond or 
ring snake, Coronella sayi, is conspicuous for its minute white specks 
scattered all over a black ground. It is one of the species most frequently 
engaged in successful conflict with the rattlesnake. Hlaps fulvus is a 
beautiful species, variegated with rings of red, black, and yellow, known in 
its abode, the Southern States, as the harlequin or scarlet snake. It has 
one large immovable fang on each side of the upper jaw, which is perhaps 
provided with a rudimentary poison gland, but the animal is considered to 
be perfectly harmless. A South American species (EZ. corallinus) of equal 
beauty and harmlessness, is represented in pl. 90, fig. 9. The Heterodons 
have already been referred to under the name of adder or viper. Of two 
large and common species, H. niger and platyrhinus, known as black and 
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