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Texas Hoopsnakes

Texas Hoopsnakes image
Parent Issue
Day
19
Month
April
Year
1895
Copyright
Public Domain
OCR Text

"The hoopsnake of Texas is as : estinfi a repule as yoa eau find j ■"vhere, " said a former resident of the' Lone Star State. "Itisuulike any hoop-; snake I ever saw in the east and a eood : deal livelier. Under its lower jaw there ia a lip, with i hole in it, and on the, end of its tail there is a hornlike hook that curves upward. Whenever the suake takes a notion to roll, it throws its tail over its snout, hooks into the lip, and goes spiuning away over the grass as tnerrily as yon please. "The snake eau gefc over tjpo ground pretty fast by crawling, but it seems to take great pleasure in rolling. The 1 der part of its body is bright red, and you caá seo the snako quite a distance when it's rolling. Some say the horn is hollow and capable of ejecting poison, ; but I don 't kuow how troe that is. pie who are ignoraut of how tho Texas ! hoopsnake is built are simply amazed wheu they happen to seo oue change írom a crawl to a roll. Thöy can't make out how it is possible for tho snake to put its ends together and roll away at euch speed unless it sticks its tail into its mouth. You will often run across a hoopsnake that is crawling along ! suiely, when all at once it will throw its tail forward aud go zipping off at a '■ speed, yon imagine, that rnakes its head : swim. But its head is always lcvel, no matter how fast it rolls or how far. 'Tve seen many a man and boy ! aruusingly taken in by hoopsnakes out i thure. Every newcorner desires to possess j a specimen, and they get it iuto their j heads that it is as easy as lying to eatch one. Tbe tenderfoot thinks he can capture a hoopsnake by poking a pole or j stick through the circle rnade by its j body. He gets t'ooled, however, for the cunning snake iustautly unhooks its tail, thus ridding itself of the stick or pole, runs a!ong on its belly for a short diatauce and then hooks into the lip again j and resumes its frolio with perfect freedoni. Tbe hoopsnake has a fine sense of humor, I reckon, for it takes delight in scaring women and tenderfeet by rolling right up to them and dodging away wheu they scream or jump. They teil a story out there of a man who ran the handle of a rake throngh a hoopsnake's oircle and unhooked it. The snake got inad, struck at the man and hit the trunk of a mesquite bushwith its horn. It sped away then, and the man found the print of ito horn in the bark. He examined the bnsh often, aud he took his oath that it died in less than 90 days. "I once saw a hoopsnake hanging to ' one of the hind feet of a gopher. The gopher kicked and squealed and pulled, and the snako kopt tapping it on the head and back with its horn. The snake couldn't have swallowed the gopher, j and it tormented the little thing out of pure deviltry. lts aim with the hook j was unerring, and it aoted as if it waa ' tickled all over every time the gopher j squealed. The hoopsnake's fun oame to j an end very suddeuly the moment other gopher appeared. The second j gopher took in the situation at a glance, j and it immediately hopped upon the snake and bit it iu the back of theneck. The snake let go of the foot mighty j quick, and all the lively writhings I aginable that snake performed in the j next eight or ten minutes. It thrashed the grass flat in a Bpace five feet in 1 ameter, and I never saw a creature hate to die as that snake did. It finally i stretohed out motionless, and I out off j its horn, which had no hoLlow in it. The wounded gopher was sqüealiog in some brush, and its rescuer was trying i hard to ooax it into a hole, but it had j been done for by the snake, and it died in a little while. "How it does make a toad's eyos hang ! out when a hoopsnake gets af ter itl The toad knows that it's a goner, and it begins to hop and peep and squeal with terror before the snake has touched it. j The snake is in no hurry, for it knows very woll that the toad can't get out of j its sight, and it takes downright j lort in hearing the toad wail. It crawls j behind the toad, and when it gets good i and roady it throws its tail forward and gives the toad a smart thump between the eyes with the point of the : horu. The toad backs up a few inches, j and the snake seizes it by a hind foot. j Then the toad kicks with its free hind foot and olaws the grass with its front feet, keeping up a piteous squealing all , the time. The snake Iets it kick and ; claw for a spell, but by aud by knocks the toad on tbe head till it stops kickiug and swallows it. "While a hoopsuake was handling a toad in that way one spring I saw a bullsnake iuterfere. The bullsnake of Texas is a big headed reptile about 3 feet long. lts body tapéis all the way like a cone, and it has two curved teeth in tbe upper jaw and is nonpoisonous. The hoopsnake had the toad by a hind foot, and of course the toad was makiug all the noise it knew how to. Suddeuly a bullsuakeglided out of the bush and struck at the hoopsnake's middle with its upper jaw. The hoopsnake inBtnntlyreleasedthe toad, faood the bullRnake and hit it on the neck with its born. Tlie blow didn't phase tbe builsuake a partióle. It roturusd the attack with a sidewindor that knocked the hoopsnake out of the path. The latter raust have been very mnoh astomshed, for, instead of eailiug into the big fulIow again, it oïeared out at once, aud the bullsnake seizeel the toad right away

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Subjects
Ann Arbor Argus
Old News