BLACK SNAKE, OR BLACK RACER

an American serpent averaging from five to six feet in length in adults, is found throughout nearly all of the North American Continent. The commonest variety, found in the Eastern and Southern states, is a pitchy black above and slate gray, sometimes a greenish white, underneath. Specimens in the West and Southwest er slightly in being a dark olive green with a greenish or yellow belly. It readily climbs trees, twisting about the lighter branches, hunting birds and their eggs, and is even able to leap through the air from the branches of one tree to those of Ger.|another. It is absolutely harmle to and even when it bites can barely cause an abrasion. An old superstition the South held that it was able to hold its own tail in its mouth and roll down hill with great speed in the form ofa hoop.