Nature Bulletin No. 54   February 23, 1946
Forest Preserve District of Cook County
Clayton F. Smith, President
Roberts Mann, Superintendent of Conservation

****:SNAKES ALIVE

"Snakes Alive" is the title of a fascinating and valuable book by 
Clifford H. Pope, published by the Viking Press, New York City. We 
recommend it to the thousands of boys and girls who seem more 
interested in snakes than in any other wildlife. Also to folks that fear 
them.

There is only one venomous snake in this Chicago region -- the small 
massasauga rattlesnake. It is rare here and probably does not breed 
within Cook County. Although dangerous, its bite is not likely to be 
fatal unless to a small child or a person with a bad heart condition. 
There appears to be no authentic record of a death by rattlesnake bite in 
Illinois in the past 100 years. Even the massasauga should not be killed.

Cur common snakes are the garter snake, the little green snake, the blue 
racer, the pilot blacksnake, the fox snake, the bull snake and the water 
snake. They are all valuable to us. They live largely on worms, insects, 
toads, frogs, gophers, mice and fish. The blacksnake sometimes eats the 
eggs and young of birds but the good he does outweighs the bad. Many 
a farmer has a pet blacksnake or bull snake living around the barn, 
keeping the place free from mice and rats. They do not steal milk from 
cows.

Most of the popular beliefs about snakes are silly. There is no "hoop" 
snake that can take its tail in its mouth and roll down hill. There is no 
snake with a stinger in its tail like a scorpion. There is no "glass" snake 
that will break into pieces. The so-called "glass snake", that can lose his 
tail and grow another, is a legless lizard. Some snakes do bear their 
young alive but young snakes do not creep back into their mother' s 
mouth for safety. Most wrongful of all is the fear of snakes and the urge 
to kill them.

Thursday, February 7, we found a little green snake that had emerged 
from its den on Tuesday, the day it rained, thundered and was so warm.
Question: Do snakes drink water?