The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1907-07-11
Many Varieties Found In
This Country.
ALL NOT DANGEROUS
The Diamond-Back Rather In Point
of Nervousness Is. Second to
None of the Poisonous Snakes of
the WOrld--Iiabits of the Deadly
Water MoCCasin.

| numbs them, and the severe hurri-
canes OF the autumn and early win
ter often cast them upon the beaches
along our northern Atlantic coasts
/ OF our sea turtles the best known and
most highly priced is the green tur'
tie, individual specimens of which
sometimes attain a weight OF 500
pounds.
Next comes the swapping turtle.
This Is fresh water turtle. It's
members are barn fighters. They
are possessed OF jaw of great power.
They live on fish and waterfowl.
One of the swapping turtles chief
peculiarities is that 1t can feed only
under water. Unless its head Is
completely submerged 1t seems un-
able to swallow.
Another distinguished member Of
the turtle family is the diamond
backed terrapin, whose home Is in
the salt marshes of the Atlantic
Coast and the Gulf of Mexico. it
cannot live in water that is entirely
fresh, although it is found some
times in the brackish Hudson.
The upper shell OF the diamond
backed terrapin is grayish or olive
in color, and it reaches maximum
length of about ten inches. Dia-
mond-backed terrapin are growing
scarcer every year.
The alligator alone among rep
tiles has the habit of believing
1Aa
what the plaintive mooing of COW
when milking time draws near.
The sound will carry for a mile or
more.
The crocodile is much more vici-
GUS animal than the alligator, and
more agile. 1t was not known tnat
1t was indigenous to North America
until 1875, when a pair of crocodiles
were discovered in Biscayne Bay.
In Florida. Except in Florida,
the species does not exist north Of
Mexico.
There are more different varieties
of lizards in North America than any
other reptile, The only poisonous
lizard found in the United States Is
the Gila monster. 1t takes its name
from the Gila River, in the vicinity
Of which 1t abounds.
The ella monsters total length Is
usually nineteen inches. It's body ia
streaked, in a sort of marble fashion,
with black and some pale color, usu-
ally salmon pink or light yellow. It
has heavy Jaws and long fangs. and
where once 1t imbeds it's teeth in a
foe. 1t has the tenacious grip of a
bulldog.
The two most deadly classes of
snakes are the elapine and viperine
families. To the elapine family, but
few Of whose branches are to found
In this country, belong the dreaded
hooded cobra, the Australian tiger
snake, and the death adder. The
viperine family comprises among Its
offspring the copperhead, the mocca-
sin. the fer-de-lance and the rattle
snake.
The American elapine serpents are
the coral snakes, In their anatomy
they show their kinship to the
cobras. but they belong to a degen-
crate offshoot Of the elapine lineage
The North American coral snakes are
to be found from North Carolina to
Southern Mexico Around their
bodies they have broad rings of red
and black and narrower rings OF
yellow. Their heads from their
slender shape. look harmless. but the
sub-family to which the coral snakes
belong is one Of the deadliest of all
the serpent tribes. They can move
with rapidity that is lightning like.
The fangs are small, but after the
coral snakes have succeeded in affix-
Ing them in the flesh Of their prey
they bite and bite again, until their
fangs have made a number of incl
sions.
or the viperine family the most
common In America are the water
moccasin or cotton mouth" snake,
the highland moccasin or copper
head snake, and the rattlesnake.
The moccasin is an extremely ven-
omous reptile. The water moccasin
is met with in the Atlantic Coast
region as far North as North Caro-
lima. In wild state these water
moccasins are inclined to be pugna-
cious, but after few months in CAP
uvity they become docile and lazy.
They derive their nickname of "cot-
ton mouth" from the habit they havo
OF opening their Jaws wide when
startled, and showing their mouths
white Interior 1t is impossible, as
popularly asserted. to tell the age Of
a rattlesnake by the number of its
rattles. rattlesnake does not
acquire new ring in its rattle
every year, and after rattle attains
a length of ten or eleven rings any
subsequent additional segments soon
hrank off Maui VnrL G,,n