The Bamberg herald. [volume] (Bamberg, S.C.) 1891-1972, 1921-11-03
GIVES SOME FACTS
ABOUT HOOP SNAKE
EXPERT SAYS THEY HAVE NO
'STING" IN TAILS END.
Spine Ends in Point.
Assistant Curator American Museum
Natural History Writes
of Reptiles.

about hoop SNAKES. foSSlDly' you
would like to publish this and get
into the controversy between the
Greenville paper and his friend at
Spartanburg.
Yours very truly,
B. F. Taylor.
Savannah, Ca, October 10, 1921.
Writes to Museum.
Museum of Natural History, New
York City.
Gentlemen: inclose clipping
from The State, of Columbia, South
Carolina, September 25, 1921.
I would be glad to know if there
is any basis for the persistent reports
of the existence Of horn or hoop
snakes. Yours very truly,
B. F. Taylor.
312 Bay Street, East Savannah,
Ca, September 20, 1921.
Tells of Snakes.
Mr.. B. F. Taylor, Savannah, Ga.
Dear Sir: In reply to your inquiry
of September 20, regarding horn and
hoop snakes, with the clipping in
closed, 1 am glad to be able to give
you some information.
During several collecting trips in
the southern states, personally col
lected three specimens of one of the
kinds of snakes known as a horn
snake .'stingin' snake" or hoop
snake These were identified with
out hesitation by the natives as the
snake which is reputed to have
poisonous sting in the end of the
tail; but examination showed that
while there was a short horny spine,
or terminal scale which ends in a
sharp point there was no "sting"
which could be withdrawn or ex-
tended.
When taken in the hand, these
snakes wrap themselves around it,
and often t*feeI' with the end OF the
tail, apparently for a purchase, as
they are burrowing snakes. They
certainly make no deliberate attempt
to ststing" or even scratch with the
tail spine. A group of burroWlng
tropical snakes, very different from
the snake we are discussing, has the
same habit of feeling for pur-
chase with its tail. We have
number of specimens of the two
American snakes (Farancia and
Abastor), of which these stories are
told, in the collections of this mu-
scum. They have no ,protFusible
sting It. is barely possible that a
person entirely ignorant of anatomy
might mistake the terminal tail YER
zebra in the crushed tail of one of
these snakes for sting.
III is not difficult in any locality
in the southern states (my\own ex-
perience was in Louisiana and North
Carolina) to collect ''eye witness" &C
counts of the sudden deaths of dogs,
etc., from the sting of the horn
snakes, and even an occasional per-
son will youch for the "hoop' story,
exactly as in the clipping you en-
closed. Some of these eye-witnesses
are simply telling snake stories
which are not unlike fish stories
Others are entirely confident of their
observation. A correspondent OF ours
writes as follows: cit had just been
killed, but had enough vitality for
tail movements. It was carefully
carried on a fire poker to the porch
for good light. The poker was
pressed on the tail, which set up
lively oscillation, and the observer
distinctly saw sting, protruded and
Withdrawn in fash but saw no
repetition of the exposure. A dissec-
tion showed the tail vertebrae de-
scending in q diminendo to the line
sting This shows that we are
very likely to see what we expect to
see, when snakes are involved; and
the average person is prone to accept
first impressions, and any extraVa-
CANT statement about snakes with
out any inclination to verify, or dis
prove them
This explains, better than anything
else I have seen, the witness OF
*ehonora bic and veracious persons TO
impossible observations.
Very truly yours,
Karl P. Schmidt,
Assistant Curator, American Museum
of Natural History, 77th Street and