Date: Tue, 2 Sep 2003 07:51:35 EDT Reply-To: Maryland Birds & Birding Sender: Maryland Birds & Birding From: Rick Sussman Subject: Re: Snake ID MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="US-ASCII" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Jason, This is from the Peterson field guide to reptiles and amphibians, if it helps; "RACERS...these are slender, fast-moving snakes-often mere streaks in the grass as they dash away. Adults of most kinda are more or less uniformly colored or longitudinally striped... When alarmed or on the defensive, many of these snakes rapidly vibrate the tip of their tails, and if they are in dry weeds or leaves, they produce a buzzing sound suggestive of a rattlesnake. When held by the neck, with the body dangling, they...lash vigorously back and forth in an effort to shake themselves free. "RAT SNAKES...these large handsome snakes in cross section are shaped like a loaf of bread, the flat belly meeting the sides of the body at an angle...Most of these tame quickly and make good pets. All the rat snakes vibrate their tails rapidly when alarmed." In other words racers are mostly very aggresive snakes, avoiding capture by quickly fleeing, while rat snakes are less aggressive and can usually be captured quite easily. The more common of the two in our area is certainly the Black Rat Snake. Rick Sussman Ashton,MD warblerick@aol.com ======================================================================= To leave the MDOsprey list, send e-mail to listserv@home.ease.lsoft.com with the following message in line 1: signoff mdosprey ======================================================================= =========================================================================