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King Snake. — This is another of the North American ophidians 
which is hard^ enough to withstand the rigours of the ania eur’s 
vivarium. It is allied to the British smooth snake, but grows much 
larger than its European relative. Small specimens aie the most 
suitable for reptile cases, for the snake is somewhat prone to canni- 
balism. The colours are yellow and black, delicately mottled in 
bands across the creature’s body. Birds, rats, and mice seem to be 
its natural food (4 to 5 feet). 
Hoop Snake. — The first impression that one has when viewing a 
motionless specimen of the above is that it is some fantastic design 
in colour worked upon a china snake, and furthermore that theaitist 
who modelled it h.as never .seen a real specimen of any reptile. 
However, such ideas are short lived for the restless creature is sure 
to move before long. It never seems to be happy unless it has 
twisted itself into a sort of complicated letter 8, with its curious 
unsnakelike head buried somewhere beneath the coils. A minute 
or two later it will have found this position not to its liking and will 
have proceeded to try another of the same variety The scales are 
tightly packed on it, somewhat like those of a blindworm, and are so 
glossy that the creature looks like a piece of highly polished porcelain. 
The colours are bright red and shining black scattered almost at 
random all over the dor.sal surface. On account of this its popular 
name is often the Red and Black Snake. Some old writers have 
affirmed that when this ophidian (which is absolutely harmless) wished 
to chase other animals for the purpose of poisoning them, it would 
place its tail in its mouth and, with the circle or hoop so formed, bowl 
along after its fleeing victims with lightning like rapidity! Possibly 
this legend has been the means of naming this creature the Hoop 
Snake. It will do well in the summer time in captivity if fed on young 
rats and mice (3 to 6 feet). 
The Viper. — Fortunately Britain only nurtures this one poisonous 
reptile, though of the three indigenous species it is by far the 
commonest. It is usually met with in dry situations, such as pine 
woods or heather moors, where it spends a good deal of its time out 
in the open basking in the sunshine. The grass snake, on the other 
hand, is usually found near ditches or in damp places generally. It 
is quite easy to distinguish between the two species. In the first 
place the grass snake has a conspicuous yellow bar across the neck, 
while the adder is always without any light marking there. Instead 
it has a clumsy V-shaped dark blotch on the he.ad, the back too of 
the latter is ornamented with a dark chain of zig-zag markings, which 
is never seen in the former. It has instead usually four rows of small 
deep green spots. The adder is more often than not of a reddi.sh- 
brown, while the British grass snake is olive green. If a viper be 
cornered without chance of escape it coils itself up in such a 
position that any moment it can throw its he.ad violently against its 
assailant. Hissing strongly it awaits rt.sults. When its enemy 
is close enough the head is darted forward with open mouth so that 
the fangs are thrust into the intruder’s flesh, and aie as rapidly w ith- 
drawn. If the enemy be a human being, for the first few minutes 
nothing will be observed save two tiny punctures in the skin. But 
in a very .short time a sharp pain will be felt, and the flesh in the 
neighbourhood of the bite will begin to swell rapidly. This will 
continue until, perhaps, the whole of the bitten limb w ill be affected. 
If the person be healthy, before a week is out a complete recovery 
will have been made, but even then the e.xperience Is not particularly 
pleasant. Of course where such things as mice, lizards, or birds are 
stnick death results in a few minutes, and this is often the method in 
