cience News. 



VOL.1 



ALBION, N. Y., JUNE 1, 1895. 



No. 18 



Natural Science News. 



A Weekly Journal Devoted to 

 Natural History. 



FRANK H. LATTIN, Editor and Publisher, 

 ALBION, N. Y. 



Correspondence and items of Interest to the 

 student of any of the various branches of the 

 Natural Sciences solicited from all. 



TERMS OF SUBSCRIPTION. 



Price, One Dollar a Year. 



To Foreign countries In the Universal Postal 

 Union, $1.50, equal to 6 s,, or G marks, or 8 francs. 

 Single copies, 5 cents each. 



Subscriptions can begin with any number. 



Remittances should be made by Draft, Express 

 or Post Office Money Order, or Registered Letter. 

 Unused U. S. Postage stamps of any denomina- 

 tion will be accepted for fractional parts of a dol- 

 lar. Make Money Orders and Drafts payable, 

 and address all subscriptions and communica- 

 tions to FRANK H. LATTIN, 

 Albion, Orleans Co., N. Y, 



Entered at Albion P. O. as 2nd class mail matter 



Among the presents to Prince 

 Bismarck, the veteran German 

 statesman, which recently reached 

 Friedrichsruhe, his home, were 

 two American bisons from the Cin- 

 cinnati Zoological Garden. — Ex. 



At Buffalo, N Y., two Buffalo 

 cows from Northern Texas have 

 been added to the collection of 

 animals at the North Park. Supt. 

 McMillan made a trip to Texas, 

 bought the animals and attended 

 to their transportation in box cars. 

 The buffaloes cost $500 each, and it 

 is said the Texas owner has on hand 

 several hundred of the animals. — 

 Ex. 



In the magnificent granite mau- 

 soleum which has been erected in 

 California for the final disposition 

 of the remains of Mrs. Fair and her 

 family will repose the petrified 

 body of her father, Mr. Thomas 

 Rooney. His remains were inter- 

 red first at Angel's Camp, Calaver- 

 as county, where the ground is 

 heavily charged with silica, the re- 

 sult being they were soon petrified 

 and attained a weight of 600 

 pounds. — Ex. 



The Coral Snake. 



Elaps fulvius, 



A contributor in a late number 

 of the Natural Science News de- 

 scribes the pit before the eye which 

 is one of the distinguishing marks 

 of the Crotalidae and seems to im- 

 ply that it is found in all venom- 

 ous snakes, and that all serpents 



destitute of this mark may be han- 

 dled with impunity. The writer 

 of the article no doubt had refer- 

 ence only to his own section of the 

 country, and in that case all his 

 statements are correct. 



There are places in the United 

 States, however, where the man 

 who would assume that all snakes 

 destitute of the "poison pit" were 

 harmless, and would take undue 

 liberties with them would, sooner 

 or later, fall by the wayside and be 

 spoken of by his sorrowing friends 

 in the sad pluperfect tense. 



There is a family of venomous 

 snakes known as the E/apidae, dis- 

 tinguished from the Crotalidae by 

 the absence of the pit before the 

 eye and the possession of a single 

 erect immovable poison fang, groov- 

 ed in front. Of this family there 

 is a single genus, the Elaps known 

 to inhabit America. 



The range of this genus is from 

 the Argentine Republic to the 

 United States, where there is one 

 species, the E. fulvius, sparsely 

 distributed through South Carolina 

 and the south and south-west, and 

 a specimen of which was lately 

 found in south-eastern Indiana. 



The E. fulvius, commonly known 

 as the coral snake, has an elongat- 

 ed cylindrical body, no apparent 

 neck, and its head, which is little 

 or no wider than the body, is cov- 

 ered with the nine epidermal plates 

 usual among the Colubrid snakes. 

 The eye is small, with round pu- 

 pil, the anal plate is divided and 

 the sub-caudal plates are bifid. 

 The body is encircled by alternate 

 bands of black, bright red and yel- 

 low, the yellow bands being so nar- 

 row that they appear like borders 

 to the other bands. The red dis- 

 appears posteriorly, the tail being 

 marked with rings of alternate 

 black and j'ellow, there being about 

 four of each. 



They are among the most bril- 

 liantly and beautifully colored 

 snakes known. Darwin, in "De- 

 cent of Man," tells us of the sur- 

 prise and admiration he felt when 

 he first saw one of them in a state 

 of nature in Brazil. He also dis- 

 cusses the origin of its gorgeous 

 colors suggesting sexual selection 

 as its cause. Believing, as I do, 

 that snakes are color blind, I must 

 conclude that sexual selection can 

 have nothing to do with their col- 

 oration, and I am glad that the 

 great naturalist dismissed his theory 

 as lacking proof. 



The coloration of the Coral 

 snakes suggests the tropics. Their 

 main habitat is within the torrid 

 zone and their gorgeous hues seem 

 out of place in our somber woods 

 and fields. Still it is fully proven 

 that this exotic serpent is a mem- 

 ber of our Indiana fauna, and it is 

 useless to quarrel with an estab- 

 lished fact. Prof. A. J. Bigney, 

 of Moore's Hill College, has a spec- 

 imen that was captured in Ripley 

 county, two miles from the village 

 of Milan. Mr. Amos W. Butler, in 

 the Journal of Cincinnati Natural 

 History Society, gives an account 

 of another specimen taken in Ham- 

 ilton county, Ohio. These discov- 

 eries greatly extend the known 

 range of this serpent. 



The Crotalidae are so slow in 

 their movements that they are 

 helpless in the grasp of their non- 

 venomous relatives, the common 

 black snake, for example, but the 

 Coral snake, though usually slug- 

 gish, is capable of killing and eat- 

 ing other snakes, as is mentioned 

 in the Encyclopedia Britdnnica and 

 also by Dr. Oliver P. Hay. 



The serpent is so small and its 

 short venom fangs are placed so 

 far back that many observers have 

 regarded it as harmless. Dr. Weir 

 Mitchell speaks of it. I quote 

 from memory, as "the beautiful 

 Coral snake, the little Elaps, too 

 small to do injury to man," yet 

 there is abundant evidence of its 

 ability to inflict dangerous bites. 

 Prof. True in American Naturalist, 

 1883, p. 26, treats of its deadly 

 powers. Prof. Coes in an article 

 on the "Minor Venomons Snakes 

 of Florida," in a recent number 

 of the Popular Science News, tells 

 us of a man who picked up one of 

 these little snakes, and after play- 

 ing with it for some ten minutes 

 returned to his work. The snake 

 had bitten him but had caused no 

 pain, and both he and his compan- 

 ions called it "a harmless garter 

 snake." In a short time, however, 

 the venom began to take effect, 

 and in spite of all that could be 

 done he died in great agony. 



Dr. Hay says that owing to the 

 smallness of the serpent's mouth it 

 would be impossible for it to wound 

 a man, except on the fingers or 

 toes; but if a bite on the finger 

 causes death I would respectfully 

 submit that this is enough. 



Angus Gaines, 

 Vincennes, Ind. 



