Garter snake

“ Frogs are not, however, the only food of the garter snakes; they will also feed upon newts or toads, they are very partial to earthworms, and in rare instances will resort to cannibalism. They never feed upon insects, and as far as my observation goes will not attack birds or mice. There is a great difference between the arrangement of the teeth in harmless and venomous snakes. The harmless garter snake, for example, possesses four rows of little needlelike teeth upon its upper jaw. ”

“ There are few, if any, remaining large areas in the United States where herpetologists have not carried on field work. It may be anticipated that certain rare and secretive species will still be found far from any known stations of occurrence, and seeming gaps in the ranges of these species will eventually be filled. But for the common garter snake the negative evidence provided by the lack of records from extensive areas should be taken into account in mapping the range. ”

“ I opened one that had a garter-snake, more than fifteen inches long, in its stomach.
The wariness of this species is so remarkable, that it takes all the cunning and care of an Indian hunter to approach it at times, especially in the case of an old bird. The acuteness of their sight and hearing is quite wonderful. If they perceive a man approaching, even at the distance of a quarter of a mile, they are sure to take to wing. Should you accidentally tread on a stick and break it, or suddenly cock your gun, all the birds in the flock raise their heads and emit a cry. ”

“ Hardly any difference as to external appearance exists between the sexes. They never attack birds or quadrupeds of any species, with the view of preying upon them. I never saw one alight on the ground. They secure their prey as they pass closely over it, and in so doing sometimes seem to alight, particularly when securing a snake. The common name of the Snake represented in the plate is the Garter Snake. ”

“ Most large collections of garter snakes contain misidentified specimens. The diagnostic differences in color and pattern are often obscured, especially if the specimens are poorly preserved. Many specimens deviate from the scalation typical of the form they represent, and key out to other species. Isolated records should therefore be accepted with caution. A case in point is Colorado University Museum No. 46, from Buford, Rio Blanco County, Colorado, originally identified by Cockerell (1910:131) as Thamnophis sirtalis parietalis. ”

“ It would also be interesting to know if the other snake was in the secret of this nest, and was waiting near to share in its contents. One rarely has the patience to let these little dramas or tragedies be played to the end; one cannot look quietly on, and see a snake devour anything. Not even when it is snake eating snake. Only a few days later my little boy called me to the garden to see a black-snake in the act of swallowing a garter-snake. ”

“ Probably this is a matter of availability rather than preference, since the garter snake is one of the commonest and most widely distributed of North American snakes, occurring throughout most of the racer's range. The green snakes (Opheodrys) also are represented frequently. The other snakes eaten are mostly medium-sized to small colubrids, of a variety of kinds. However, there are three records (from Connecticut, Missouri and Kansas) of the racer preying on the venomous copperhead. There are many records of the racer preying on smaller individuals of its own species. ”

“ Of other snakes there were the moccasins, water snakes, and esteemed very deadly. It is said that when an Indian is bitten by one of these he lies down to die without making any effort to save his life, whereas if a rattlesnake has harmed him he usually cures himself. Besides these there were the omnipresent garter snakes, and the grey or silver coach-whip, both harmless. The bull snake is said to grow to an enormous size, and is a kind of North American python or boa. About five miles [Pg 279] from our camp was an old hut, which was occupied by a sheep-herder whom I knew. ”

“ The special sense organs, as eyes and ears, should be examined and compared with those of the fish and toad.
Life-history and habits.—The garter snakes are more or less aquatic in habit and are good swimmers. They are often found far from water, but in greatest abundance where the cat-tails and rushes grow thickest. They feed on frogs, salamanders, and field-mice, which they swallow whole. All the garter snakes are ovoviviparous, i.e., hatch eggs within the body-cavity. ”

“ It is a winter sleep in colder and temperate climates, and a summer sleep in hot ones. The green garter-snake of the United States hibernates eight months out of the twelve. So do some of the Australian snakes, others being underground five months in the year, Krefft tells us. The duration of insensibility varies, of course, with the climate and season.
Snakes in menageries have been known to manifest inactivity [163] and disinclination for food as early as September if the season be unusually cold, at other times in October ”

“ These are found all over the United States and are perfectly harmless. They are abundant. Burrowing in the ground in the late fall they remain there all winter. Even the boy living in the large cities may, without going out of the city limits, find these snakes. They are quite commonly found in large public parks. They like frogs and toads and bolt their food. There are many varieties of this snake. Both the Ribbon Snakes and the Garter Snakes belong to the genus Eutænia, which is the most numerous of those of the United States. ”

“ At the end of two or three days they grow hungry enough to eat, and will pounce upon and devour earthworms with much avidity. Very amusing indeed is it when two little snakes seize upon opposite ends of the same worm, for the fight only ends when one of the serpents attempts to swallow his brother, worm and all. Earthworms, however, can not be their only food, for the garter snake is exceedingly abundant where earthworms are very rare, as in the Canada woods. I have never observed the mother snake guard her progeny, and believe that the little ones scatter immediately to seek their fortunes. ”

“ Several authors have published specific information regarding the food of C. c. flaviventris. Hurter (1911:171) caught a blue racer in the act of swallowing a copperhead (Agkistrodon contortrix) . Taylor (1892:331) recorded finding garter snakes in several large racers. Pope and Dickinson (1928:53) recorded instances of blue racers feeding on racerunners (Cnemidophorus sexlineatus) . Ortenburger (1928:181) examined 22 stomachs and recorded: 1 large garter snake (Thamnophis sirtalis) , 1 vole (Microtus pennsylvanicus) , 1 frog (Rana sp.) ”

“ Among these probably the most often seen are the striped garter-snakes which abound in meadows and about haystacks and old barns, where they search holes and corners for mice and beetles. The warm, soft soil of old barnyards is a favorite place for the laying of their eggs by snakes, most of which bury them in such places and leave them to be hatched by the warmth of the sunshine. Nearly every pond, marsh, and slow stream abounds also in water-snakes, which are ugly in disposition as well as in color, and feed mainly on fishes, both dead and alive. ”

“ All other kinds, such as black snakes, milk snakes and garter snakes can never harm a person. Teddy and Janet knew this, and they had been taught by their father that these harmless snakes did a great deal of good by eating rats and mice that, otherwise, would spoil the farmers' grain. ”

“ It might have been the poison gland! The young Jararaca’s mouth is too small to reveal its mysteries.
But now we come to the most amazing of all the wondrous detail of this living hypodermic syringe. Those who have seen a viper or a rattlesnake strike its prey, are cognisant of the lightning-like rapidity of the action. So swift is it that often a spectator is not sure whether the snake touched the victim or not. A flicker, a flash, and the bite has been given. ”

“ Snakes can not be tamed, or made to do tricks like other animals, and the stories of "snake charmers" are mostly untrue. Some snakes may rise and sway when music is played, and the snakes that circus performers handle are just as harmless as the garden snakes you see. Some of the larger ones, however, are very powerful, and can twist themselves around a person or an animal strongly enough to kill. But the performers know how to handle snakes, using slow and gentle movements, so the reptiles do not mind it.
Thus it was that Janet had no fear of Slider, the pet alligator. ”

“ It is said that the snakes, the deer, and the ginseng act as allies, so that an injury to one is avenged by the others. The feeling toward snakes is one mingled with fear and reverence, and every precaution is taken to avoid the killing or offending one, especially the rattlesnake. He who kills a snake will soon see others; and should he kill a second one, so many will come around him, whichever way he may turn, that he will become dazed at the sight of their glistening eyes and darting tongues, and will go wandering about like a crazy man, unable to find his way out of the woods. ”

“ Of our two hundred and thirty-seven kinds of snakes only forty-four are ranked by naturalists as venomous, and many of these are quite incapable of killing any animal as large as a man. Others are very rare or local. In short, we may reckon the poisonous snakes with which we have any practical concern at four kinds, and the chance of a snake found in the house belonging to one of these kinds stands at less than one in ten.
It is a sufficiently terrible thought, however, that there are even four kinds of reptiles going silently about the land whose bite is certain death. ”

“ Whenever this reptile is discovered, the male darts upon it with the rapidity of an arrow, dextrously eluding its bite, and striking it violently and incessantly against the head, where it is very vulnerable. The snake soon becomes sensible of his danger, and seeks to escape; but the intrepid bird redoubles his exertions, and as the snake’s strength begins to flag, he seizes and lifts it up from the ground, beating it with his wings, and when the business is completed, he returns to his nest, mounts the summit of the bush, and pours out a torrent of song in token of victory. ”

“ And, just as serpent-worship prevails most among savages to-day, so among civilized peoples, children, most of all, feel a fearful, superstitious interest in all that concerns snakes, and have invented many myths about them. In Central Ohio, when one child kills a snake, the lookers on universally call out,"Its tail won't die till sundown." This notion, I find, is one of wide acceptation, and doubtless arises from the persistent vitality of the muscular contractility of the snake. In Southern Ohio it is now generally believed that a snake will not crawl over ash-wood ”

“ Snakes are highly specialized in every way, including their prey. Some live exclusively on warm-blooded animals, on mammals, or birds. Some live exclusively on batrachians, others only on lizards, a few only on insects. A very few species live exclusively on other snakes. These include one very formidable venomous snake, the Indian hamadryad, or giant cobra, and several non-poisonous snakes. In Africa I killed a small cobra which contained within it a snake but a few inches shorter than itself ”

“ Snakes are frequently found in what would seem to be the most unlikely places. As an instance, a lady of my district very nearly put her hand on a live cobra in reaching an ornament from the mantel-piece; the reptile was lying quietly next the wall, behind a clock. How he got there, was a mystery never solved. A friend of mine, who had set a country-made wooden trap for rats, caught a cobra instead, much to the horror of his mehtur (sweeper) . But, more curious still, a snake was discovered by a lady whom I knew, a few years ago, on a drawing-room table of a station bungalow. ”

“ Most of them are beautifully marked and spotted, and some shine like gold in the sun, while others have pale, soft tints; but these lovely colours fade in death, just as those of fish do; so that a snake in all its glittering beauty can only be seen when alive. They often change their skins, creeping out of the old and appearing ready-dressed in the new. A traveller along the banks of the Nile has often found these cast-off skins in the fields; they are always turned inside out, for the old skin, which is very soft, folds back as the snake slips out of it. ”

“ For downright strategy no creature inhabiting the desert surpasses the road-runner, sometimes called the ground-cuckoo or snake-killer. Though omnivorous, this bird lives chiefly on reptiles and mollusks. It is decked in a gay plumage of coppery green, with streaks of white on the sides and a topknot of deep blue. In fleetness of foot it is said to equal the horse. Many stories are told of its surrounding a coiled sleeping rattlesnake with strips of cactus and then tantalizing its victim until, baffled in every attempt to get away, the snake finally inflicts a deadly bite on itself. ”

“ The fascinating power ascribed to the black snake is an error. When a snake is discovered in the vicinity of a nest, the male bird mounts a spray, and in great agitation flutters his wings in a threatening manner, till an opportunity offers of flying down to the attack. In these encounters the snake sometimes succeeds in biting the bird, and in injecting its venom, when the effect of the poison is so sudden, as to paralyse the further efforts of the latter; hence has arisen the supposed power of fascination, and the story of birds flying into the snake's jaws. ”