shun, as you would a rabid dog, a pretty little red-and-black banded serpent about as thick as your thumb. if any living creature whose habitat is the united states deserves the epithet "deadly," it is the elaps. two species are known; the harlequin snake, which ranges throughout the gulf states to texas and up the mississippi river to ohio, and the sonoran coral snake, found in the southwest only. by a strange perversion of facts, while the harmless hog-nosed snake enjoys a repute of terror, the elaps, most dangerous of all american reptiles, is commonly regarded as harmless. partly this is due to its slight and graceful prettiness, partly to its innocent-appearing head, which shows no flattening (the popularly understood mark of the venomous species), and partly to its lethargic and peaceful disposition. experimenters wishing to secure the venom of the elaps often find it difficult to rouse the snake to striking wrath.
very few instances are known of elaps bite, but those few unquestionably set this ornamental creature in a class by itself, among american ophidia, for "results." out of eight well-authenticated cases of elaps bite, six of the victims died. this is believed to indicate a falsely large percentage, however, the scientific estimate of mortality being somewhere between twenty-five and fifty per cent.
a government scientist tells me of a curious result from coral-snake bite which came under his notice. the victim, who was handling the reptile preparatory to photographing it, apparently overstepped the bounds of its habitual forbearance, for it fastened upon his finger with such determination that it had to be pried off. the man soon became unconscious, but rallied, and, after three days of dubious condition, recovered. every year since, at about the anniversary of the bite, an ulcer forms upon the finger and the nail sloughs off. i have heard of similar recurrent effects from crotaline poisoning, but none scientifically attested, as is this phenomenon.
before passing from the subject of snakes,
