Tree snake

“ This is the blade snake, who frequently glides up the trunk of the tree, and, like a skulking savage, enters the woodpecker's peaceful apartment, devours the eggs or helpless young, in spite of the cries and flutterings of the parents, and if the place be large enough, coils himself up in the spot they occupied, where he will sometimes remain for several days. ”

“ Snakes are said to be common, and among them several are venomous—the rattlesnake, the coral-snake, and most dreaded of all, a little dark serpent a foot or so in length, with an enormous head, whose bite is said to be immediately fatal. There are also many tree-snakes, as thick as a man's arm. ”

“ I have often noticed that while a gray snake will stretch itself out in the sun on a bare rock, a green snake never chooses such a post. Instead, the green snake extends itself on a bed of moss, or close, short grass, or if slim and light of body, will crawl up the midrib of a big leaf, or the stalk of a fern frond, where its color is scarcely discernible from the vegetation about it. A dark brown or black snake seems to know that it is tolerably secure lying upon a fallen, decaying tree-trunk. ”

“ There is a long and slender tree snake ‘that eateth eggs, and goeth faster on the trees than any man can runne on the ground, with a motion not unlike swimming.’ Its correspondingly long name is Guiaranpiaquana! ”

“ 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. ”

“ The general characteristic of the Tree-snake is an exceedingly thin and delicate body, often adorned with colours exquisite as those of the foliage amongst which they live concealed. In some of the South American species the tints vie in brilliancy with those of the humming-birds ”

“ Slender and active, the harmless kinds skim among the branches, which scarcely bend beneath their weight. Many of them have small and peculiarly arranged ventral shields, not requiring to hold on in progression; many also have long prehensile tails, which wind and cling while the little acrobats swing to and fro, or hang down to take a young bird or an egg out of the nest. The poisonous kinds of tree snakes abound in India, have a thick body, broad head, and a dull, sluggish habit, but still are handsome as to colour, and mostly green. ”

“ We say that a snake is so many feet long, not tall, and these rattan-palms are palm-creepers, great vegetable serpents, that twist and coil as they grow, and hug the forest in their great coils, which are larger and more powerful than those of any python or boa-constrictor. A python or a boa-constrictor could not kill a very large animal, but the [Pg 32] great palm-snakes will crawl up the largest tree, and crush it and squeeze it till at last it dies and comes thundering down in the forest, and then they will crawl along the ground to another, and hug that to death, too. ”

“ Its teeth are pretty sharp, too, and bring blood when the hand or bare arm is struck; but then its violent efforts are so amusing that one forgets all about the pain. The snake loves a moonlit night, and at such times occasionally floats upon the surface of the pond without making the slightest motion, and a stranger would suppose it to be a small limb of a tree. ”

“ Some of the tree-snakes, too, are very beautiful; and, many of them being of the same bright green as the foliage, a close look is required to distinguish them as they lurk beneath it on the watch for birds, or for little mice which sometimes climb up into bushes, or into the lower branches of trees. ”

“ It is not uncommon to see these birds fly up with a long snake pending from their beak, the bird holding the reptile by the neck, just behind the head; but as the snake hangs down without motion, and appears dead, it is probable that the bird destroys them upon the ground before it conveys them into the tree. ”

“ Although this snake occurs in every habitat of the Reservation, it has been found most often along rock outcrops of wooded hilltop edges in the type of habitat most favored by the rat. Most often pilot black snakes have attempted to escape into crevices of the outcrop. These snakes are also skillful climbers and often have escaped by climbing out of reach along branches or even vertical tree trunks. ”

“ It is said that no kind of snake is ever found near the “ashen-tree,” and that a branch of the ash-tree will prevent a snake from coming near a person.
A child, who was in the habit of receiving its portion of bread and milk at the cottage door, was found to be in the habit of sharing its food with one of the poisonous adders. The reptile came regularly every morning, and the child, pleased with the beauty of his companion, encouraged the visits. ”

“ The habitat frequently furnishes a key to the character of the snake. The venomous varieties choose by preference the rocky uplands, either open or sparsely wooded. The harmless snakes live almost exclusively in low swampy lands or along water courses. Venomous snakes are purely terrestrial. One was never known to ascend a tree. ”

“ Most snakes can climb, and in this case the ribs and ventral shields are of great assistance. The Tree-snakes, usually characterized by a very slender, sometimes compressed, body, or by a prehensile tail, are specially adapted for twining themselves round branches, and in several of them the presence of a keel on each side of the ventral and subcaudal shields, accompanied by a notch corresponding to the keel, affords an additional help for climbing on vertical uneven surfaces, such as the trunks of trees. ”

“ Tree snakes, and snakes that live in grass or mosses, are usually green, marbled, or streaked with black and brown. Snakes from the marshes or muddy banks are nearly black; among the abundant flowers and gayly colored shrubs of the tropics, snakes take very brilliant hues. Snakes of temperate climates are also often tricked out with scarlet, or white or orange stripes and bands.
Snakes are largest, most numerous, and most brightly colored in hot countries. Like all the cold-blooded vertebrates, they delight in hot sunshine, and will lie motionless, basking for hours. ”

“ Tree snakes, which are able to climb bushes or trees with facility or pass even the greater part of their existence on trees. Their body is generally compressed and slender; their broad ventral scutes are often carinate on the sides. ”

“ Tree-snakes spend the greater part of their life on bushes or trees. Corralus among the Boidae, Dendrophis and Dendraspis among the Colubridae, Atheris, and various species of Lachesis among the Viperidae, may be quoted as examples. ”

“ 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. ”

“ To this tribe surrounded by enemies, nature has given abundant means of self-preservation,—swiftness of motion; instinct of instant flight; poison, sometimes deadly to its enemies; vast size and strength, as in some boas and pythons, and especially colorations, which closely imitate their surroundings. Thus ground snakes have, especially on the back and sides, brown, gray, black, and white in spots and markings, which together look much like earth, twigs, pebbles, and dead leaves, so that the snake can scarcely be distinguished from its bed or home. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Off in the ferns there beat a warning tattoo—the loud whir of the snake's tail against a skunk-cabbage leaf.
In my hand was a slender dogwood switch that I had been poking into the holes of the digger-wasps up the hillside. If one thing more than another will turn a snake tail to in a hurry it is the song of a switch. Expecting to see this overbold fellow jump out of his new skin and lunge off into the swale, I leaned forward and made the stick sing under his nose. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Startled by our approach, a tiny fer-de-lance glides out from a bunch of dead wild-cane, almost under the bare feet of our foremost guide, who as instantly decapitates it with a touch of his cutlass. It is not quite fifteen inches long, and almost the color of the yellowish leaves under which it had been hiding.... The conversation turns on snakes as we make our first halt at the verge of the woods.
Hundreds may be hiding around us; but a snake never shows himself by daylight except under the pressure of sudden alarm. We are not likely, in the opinion of all present, to meet with another. ”

“ Off to the right, he saw a monstrous snake’s head, as huge as the body of a hippopotamus, rise up from the swamp and gaze on ravenously at the riotous revel.
An instant later the licentious carousal was become wildest terror. The forest was alive with frightful reptiles—gigantic, stupendous things that passed the extent of all imagination. Down they swooped upon their terrified prey, their enormous, slippery bodies undulating in great writhing leaps. ”

“ 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. ”

“ When the sun grew hot overhead and the way was over open savannah country, I would see something moving on the ground at my side and always keeping abreast of me. A small snake, one or two feet long. No, not a small snake, but a sinuous mark in the pattern on a huge serpent’s head, five or six yards long, always moving deliberately at my side. If a cloud came over the sun, or a fresh breeze sprang up, gradually the outline of that awful head would fade and the well-defined pattern would resolve itself into the motlings on the earth. ”

“ I have several times seen large snakes coiled, or rather twined, among the Venetians of bungalow windows, and have observed that the grass-snake, which is of a beautiful green, with a reddish head, is partial to secreting itself under the leaves of tables, and, in situations of that description, where it may be easily dislodged, or touched, by accident. ”

“ 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. ”

“ They generally keep on the topmost branches of the highest trees to keep out of the way of the Serpents, of which they are very much afraid. Even when tamed and brought to this country, the sight of the most harmless Snake will fill them with terror. ”

“ 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 ”

“ She, too, has been picking berries, and has come suddenly upon a monster snake just gliding from a cedar bough almost over her head. When her fright subsides he at once hunts for and kills that reptile with far more satisfaction than he ever felt in killing one before. It is an ungrateful return, for although the boy knew it not, the snake has done him a greater kindness than he ever realized. Then when all danger is removed, how sweet it is to sit beside her in the shade and talk over schooldays while he looks into her tender blue eyes. ”

“ 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? ”