Grass snake

“ The short grass beneath the forest trees moves, writhes, and creeps with microscopic life, until the brain grows dizzy at the sight. At night it is no less marvellous to hear the myriad denizens of the swamps and woods; and terrible when your tread on some soft, velvety substance reveals a sleeping snake, who, at the same moment, attacks you with his poisonous fang, mayhap, fatally. ”

“ Sometimes we catch sight of a huge black snake wriggling its way up from the water and through the long grass till it vanishes from our sight; for it is here in these luxuriant and mysterious wilds that Nature hides the most hideous of her progeny. Creeping things and poisonous reptiles, that we shudder to think of, have their homes in these brilliant and luxuriant solitudes—the secret haunts of all-bountiful Nature, where man will not dare to penetrate. ”

“ The Habits of the Grass-Snake (Tropidonotus natrix) in Confinement.—This species, besides being very easily procured, is very hardy, and not nearly so subject to canker in captivity as are some of the continental species. Out of about twenty-five specimens I have had in my possession, only one has died of this disease, and that one through being put into an infected cage.
The Grass-Snake, or Binged Snake, when frequently handled, soon becomes tame, and hardly ever attempts to bite. ”

“ One day, the summer after my encounter in the ferns, I was sitting upon a harrow at the edge of the gravelly field that slopes to the swale, when a large black-snake glided swiftly across the lane and disappeared in the grass beyond. It had been gone perhaps a minute, when I heard another stir behind me, and turning, saw high above the weeds and dewberry-vines the neck and head of a second black-snake. ”

“ The Grass Snake is our largest British species, full-grown females averaging four feet in length; the males a foot less. Exceptional examples are little short of six feet, and in Italy the same species attains to a length of eight feet. It is of graceful form, the body tapering gently from its middle to the very slender tip of the tail. The long, narrow head, covered with large shields, ends in a blunt snout, with eyes and nostrils at the sides. The rather large eyes have round pupils circled with gold and a dark brown iris. ”

“ All that was wanting for the snake to secure the victims seemed to be, that the birds should pass near his head, which they would probably have soon done, but at this moment a wagon drove up and stopped. This frightened the snake, and it crawled across the fence into the grass: notwithstanding, the birds flew over the fence into the grass also, and appeared to be bewitched, to flutter around their charmer, and it was not until an attempt was made to kill the snake that the birds would avail themselves of their wings, and fly into a forest one hundred rods distant. ”

“ Delicate in form, and of the brightest grass-green—while, like the rest of its family, perfectly harmless—the green snake is a great favourite with the Brazilians; and as it is easily tamed, young girls may often be seen carrying it about, winding it round their throats or wrists, forming it into living necklaces or bracelets. It lives in trees, among the green foliage, over which it rapidly glides in search of insects—its usual food. ”

“ The Grass-Snake prefers moist, grassy localities, with the neighbourhood of water, chiefly on account of the food, which consists entirely of fishes and Amphibia, notably of frogs; tree-frogs are preferred to anything else; toads are occasionally eaten, but mice are never taken. ”

“ The Grass-Snake can climb trees or rather shrubs and is an accomplished swimmer, often spending much of its time in water for fishing purposes. The fish is caught by the belly and then generally swallowed on land. ”

“ The Common Grass-snake, for instance, hisses loudly and takes up a very threatening attitude, or even pretends to snap with open mouth, but very seldom bites; its principal defensive action when caught consists in voiding a most repulsive secretion from its anal glands, which it evidently controls, as it ceases doing so when accustomed to being handled. ”

“ It never attains to so large a size as the Grass Snake, its maximum length being two feet.
The ground colour of this snake on the upper side is grey, brown, or reddish, with small black, brown, or red spots, which are usually in pairs; occasionally there are three lighter longitudinal stripes. The upper part of the head is sometimes blackish; this is more frequently so in young examples. A dark streak runs from the nostrils and through the eye to the angle of the mouth. This streak may be prolonged, even to the tail. ”

“ Snakes never seem to venture so far from shore except when it is perfectly calm. The movement of the body is exactly the same as on land—the snake glides over the surface, the bends of its body seeming to act like a screw. They go at a good pace, and with the greatest apparent ease. In walking beside the meadow brooks, not everywhere, but in localities where these reptiles are common, every now and then you may see a snake strike off from the shore and swim across, twining in and out the stems of the green flags till he reaches the aquatic grass on the mud and disappears among it. ”

“ The second variety, rather common in Spain and Portugal, although not the only form in the Peninsula, has no collar whatever, and these specimens are sometimes almost uniformly grey-green above. The third variety, common in South-Eastern Europe and in Asia Minor, has a well-marked collar and a yellowish streak along each side of the back. But there are also almost black specimens.
The usual length of an adult female Grass-Snake is about 3 feet, but very exceptional cases of more than 6 feet are on record; the males are smaller and more slenderly built. ”

“ To say nothing of savages, who seem to be partial to the flesh of large snakes, the peasantry in some parts of France do not disdain snakes as an article of food, the Grass-snake being occasionally served in village inns under the name of Anguilles de haies, or hedge-eels. ”

“ The most common with us were the brown, black, and whip snakes, and the death-adder, all poisonous; and the carpet-snake, harmless. The brown and black snakes run from two to eight feet in length, frequent the long grass, chiefly in the neighbourhood of swamps, and from the snug way in which they coil up, and their disinclination to move, are highly dangerous. The latter is very handsome, the back of a brilliant black, and the under portion of a sea-shell pink. Their skin is sometimes used by bushmen as a cover to their waistbelts, which are much beautified thereby. ”

“ Listen! there is a faint rustling and a slight movement of the grass: it is a snake gliding away to its hole, with yellow-marked head lifted above the ground over which his dull green length is trailing. Stepping well over the moist earth, and reaching the firmer ground, there the thistles grow great and tall, many up to the shoulder; it is a little more open here, the stoles having been cut only two years ago, and they draw the thistles up.
Sometimes the young ash, shooting up after being cut, takes fantastic shapes instead of rising straight. ”

“ The common Ringed Snake of our fields will often, as it is said, go into the water in the pursuit of frogs, its favourite prey.
The smaller harmless Snakes are exceedingly numerous in warm countries, and inhabit various localities and situations. Rocky places, old dry walls, heaps of stones and rubbish, are favourite haunts of many, others glide among the heaths of upland plains, and others rustle the fallen leaves beneath the trees of the damp forest; some live in the long grass of savannahs, some in the dense and impenetrable jungle ”

“ It has no garden to take a walk in; not so much as a tree, or shrub, or patch of grass to refresh the eye, while it swarms with different kinds of vermin, such as weasels, snakes, lizards, and scorpions. Sometimes when a man goes to fetch his hat in the morning, he has the unpleasant surprise of finding a snake coiled round it. ”

“ The guinea-fowl and turkeys were very fond of laying their eggs in the grass-plat too; and in late spring and summer, and early autumn, snakes were very fond of it also. Up-country people in Australia get careless about snakes, as colliers in England get careless about fire-damp and choke-damp—just because they may be killed by them any day.
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One day Mrs. Lawson put on her sun-bonnet, with a curtain that came half-way down her back, and went to the grass-plat to look for eggs, and Harry went with her. All of a sudden she started up with a great black snake coiled round her arm. ”

“ In any event, the mode of progression abruptly changes to a swifter and much smoother travel, and the snake may seem to vanish completely or as it glides rapidly away, its course may be marked by the slowly waving tops of tall grass. ”

“ In that country there are several small and dangerous snakes; but it has been found that the dogs’ sagacity has been such that they, of their own initiation, immediately become alive to the dangerous natures of these reptiles and that they will return to the shooter when they get near a snake, either in the grass or on a branch overhead. ”

“ Snake stories are always effective. I have none to tell. My bungalow roof, the thatch, was at all times infested by snakes, some quite large. At night one frequently heard them gliding between the bamboos and grass, chasing mice, beetles, or perhaps lizards, and sometimes falling on the top of the mosquito bar, or even on the dinner-table; but these were probably harmless creatures, as most snakes are. The cobra was not common in Cachar. ”

“ But he did not jump or budge. He only bent back out of range, swayed from side to side, and drew more of his black length out into the low grass to better his position.
The lidless eyes and scale-cased face of a snake might seem incapable of more than one set expression. Can hate and fear show there? ”

“ Thus, the death-adder is nearly red in a red soil country, black and gray in black soil, and brown on sand, and is exceedingly sluggish, trusting to the adaptation of his color to the ground he crawls upon for safety. Nothing is more remarkable about snakes than their extraordinary faculty of making themselves invisible. A large carpet-snake can hardly be seen, as he lies along a branch or coiled motionless in the fork of a tree whose bark exactly matches his skin in color. The green tree-snakes are invisible among foliage. ”

“ The pathway is broad, but brown not green, as our woodland walks at home are wont to be. Perhaps we stop soon to wonder what lies yonder right in our path. It is as large and round as a small footstool, dark and glistening in the moon's rays. We have room to avoid it, and we do so, wisely, for its bite is deadly. It is the black snake, or water-snake, coiled up and asleep. By-and-by he will measure all his length on the ground, creep off to find a frog or lizard, and then back to his evil cave in some dark and damp recess. ”

“ Another excellent climber is the slender greensnake, which is so near the color of the leaves that it will not be noticed easily as it hangs in loops upon the branches of a bush, waiting quietly for some insect to come within reach. Most of our snakes, however, spend their time mainly on the ground, searching about the grass, among the tussocks of a swamp, or amid dense thickets, after frogs, toads, tadpoles, ground-nesting birds, mice, and especially insects, which last form the principal food of the smaller kinds. ”

“ 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 snake killed them. It was he, too, who ate the eggs of the bluebirds in the old apple-tree along the fence in the adjoining field.
There must be a dragon in the way, I suppose—in the way even of nature study. There are unpleasant, perhaps unnecessary, and evil creatures—snakes!—in the fields and woods, which we must be willing to meet and tolerate for the love within us. Tick-seeds, beggar-needles, mud, mosquitos, rain, heat, hawks, and snakes haunt all our paths, hindering us sometimes, though never really blocking the way. ”

“ Except for their attacks on the birds, tree-climbing snakes are usually of the harmless kind, and are sometimes even useful. There is, however, a tree snake in hot countries, which seems to have a spiteful disposition, and darts from the branches at the eyes and faces of passers-by, often inflicting a sharp, though not poisonous wound. ”

“ If he is allowed to touch the arm he immediately coils round it. A snake is sometimes found on the roofs of cottages. The roof in such cases is low, and connected by a mass of ivy with the ground, overgrown too with moss and weeds.
The mowers, who sleep a good deal under the hedges, have a tradition that a snake will sometimes crawl down a man’s throat if he sleeps on the ground with his mouth open. There is also a superstition among the haymakers of snakes having been bred in the stomachs of human beings, from drinking out of ponds or streams frequented by water snakes. ”

“ In the meadows lower down, bounding the wood, the hay is gone or is piled in summer ricks, which lean one one way and another the other, and upon whose roofs, sloping at an obtuse angle, the green snakes lie coiled in the sunshine. Often when the waggon comes, and the little rick is loaded, the ‘pitch’ of hay on the prong as it is flung up carries with it a snake whirling in the air. He falls on the sward and is instantly pounced upon by the farmer’s dog, who worries him, seizes him by the middle and shakes him, while the snake twists and hisses in vain. ”