Morning journal and courier., 1882-08-23

A
 Horn Snake, and the Glass Snake.
 TT. c. Rice in Worcester Spy]
 The blue racer is in figure like our black snake, and yet he is to that snake what steam yacht is to a tugboat, a thoroughbred to shelty. His color is that of deep indigo upon the back frightened by the most perfect blending to pure white upon the belly. It is his habit to follow the breaking plough in search of such worms and insects as are turn ed to the light and one of five six feet in length will often approach to within 8 few feet of the ploughman's heels. so near that comer is made uneasy and inclined to wish himself back in New England, where reptiles at least less inclined to familiari ty But the racer is so persistent while the demand upon the ploughman's labor is so imperative, that the one must not, and the other will not abandon the furrow; and so what at first was akin to terror in the man merges into indignation, and he starts, whip in hand, to bring matters to an immediate crisis, when-preSto like 8 ray of light swift as an arrow from the bow of an In- dian, the racer shoots diagonally across the breaking.
 Rattlesnakes seem to growl. Blow snakes whistle, and you'd better be out of the reach of their breath, but the blue racer-why, he laughs st you, not audibly, but yet he laughs in the most downright and undisguised mer- riment You can see him positively make fun of you, and all the while with eye so shiningly benignant, so sweetly mild, and that easy unduiating motion of the head and neck, like cooing pigeon, graceful as the swinging of dory sea becalmed. The moment your back is turned upon him he is at your heels, bantering you to try it over again. Bless his beautiful figure. He may be "Wtse as a serpent" He IS certainly ''harmless as dove.'
 The blow snake is in color and general ap- pearance the counterpart of the southern rattler, plaided yellow and black-but he lacks the burning eye, the horrid fattening of the head in itself the seeming portent of evil and that six inches of erected tail with it's quivering rattle in the center of the coil. have killed them eight feet in length and three and one half inches th' ough They never pick quarrel, but they defend themselves on occasion, by blast of poison air which they emit through the mouth with 8 half hiss half whistle. The breath is not deadly, not even perhaps dangerous, but horribly sick ening. have seen a dog greatly distress ed for an hour, after battle with one of them.
 The horn snake I have killed-one speci- men on the edge of Langham creek, near the Iroquois, and one on the border of the great Vermillion swamp. He is the color and size of our garter, but has exceedingly hard, glossy covering, and horn 1 l f inches in length at the end of the tail crooked like dogs fang bent downward and very sharp His head is not enlarged or hattened like most other snakes, but is shaped like that of eel, having apparent neck Unfortu- nately I murdered both these specimens on too short acquaintance, and pay the penalty until this day by ignorance of their method of warfare. Undoubtedly the horn is his weapon, but I feel certain it cannot convey poison.
 But the strangest of all strange snakes, from the racer to the bed snake, that have moro than once captured in 8 lady, bed after she had fled in dsmay and horror from her ;hamber in the third and fourth stories is the joint or glass snake. Why, when speak ing of him have had men look increduIous as if they thought I could lie, as if they took me for a trout fisher. Of all the inconceiva ble absurd reptilian designs in nature the glass snake of the prairies wears the crown, and why the Great Author should, with 50 much minutia and painstaking, construct 8 creature that will at the mere shadow of