Since biblical times snakes have been portrayed as the wicked temper, the belly crawling, sin-offering, slithering Satan that everyone hates and sould stay clear of.

Many tales of strange behavior from snakes have been handed down from generation to generation for years!

For Example:

Fiction:

The famous glass snake that supposedly splinters when you touch it and then reassembles itself when you leave.

Fact:

This famous glass snake is actually just a ledless lizard. It resembles a snake very much except for the fact that is has earholes and eyelids. Being that it is a lizard, its tail can be chopped off and still live. That is porbably where the tale of shattering comes into play.

Fiction:

A coachwhip will pursue even the most unsuspecting passerby and throw them down onto the ground and then unmercifully beat them with their whiplike tail.

Fact:

The coachwhip has a long, slender tail that has an unusual scale pattern. The tail resembles a woven leather whip similar to those that where used by drivers on horse-pulled coaches. When the coachwhip is handled is trashes its whiplike tail in every direction and bites viciously as a defense mechanism.

Fiction:

The mud snake and the rainbow snake both commonly known as the stinging snake or hoop snake will coil up like a hoop with its tail (which has a sharp, spinelike scale on it) in its mouth, roll through the swamp looking for terrified prey to attack and then as the snake has claimed its victim it uncoils, jumps through the air like a spear, and stings the victim with its ever fatally poisonous stinger.

Fact:

The mud snake and the rainbow snake are not at all vicious. They have a sharp, spinelike scale on the end of their tail that is harmless. They only use the spine when being handled. They will coil their tail around the leg or arm of the captor and thrust their spines against the skin but the there is no stinger or poison, and the spine does not even pierce the skin. All the mud snake and the rainbow snake care to do is to stretch out on a branch overhanging swamp water and soak up the warm, everlasting, southern sunshine.

Fiction:

The king snake known as the milk snake Steals milk. It will raise up its long slender body and suck milk from cow udders.

Fact:

The king snake has never "stolen milk." The king snake only roams around the barns in search of its favorite prey, the mouse not milk.

Fiction:

A snake can only truely die until sunset.

Fact:

A snake will die at anytime of the day. True the body will continue to twitch for hours afterwars due to a reflex action which is very common to most all reptiles.

Fiction:

If a rattlesnake is killed during mating season the mate will wait in hiding for an opportunity of revenge for its partners death.

Fact:

This is a romantic but untrue tale. The rattlesnake will not wait around to avenge its partners death. The snake will continue to go on with life.

Fiction:

The number of rattles that a rattlesnake has will help someone determine how old a rattler may be.

Fact:

The number of rattles does not really determine the age of a rattlesnake. Everytime a rattlesnake sheds its skin, it adds another segment to its rattle. A rattlesnake may shed two or three time a year.

Fiction:

Snake charmers move in time with their music and cause the cobra to be spellbound by the music and the movement.

Fact:

A snake charmer is not really able to spellbound a cobra. They have many different ways of protcting themsleves and keeping a cobra from biting. Snake charmers are known to sew the lips of the snake together. They are also know to remove the cobra's poison fangs.

Fiction:

When a snake approaches its prey, the snake seems to hypnotize it.

Fact:

Actually, when the prey has noticed that the snake has sensed it, they try to sit tight. Although the snake's tongue senses prey nearby, its eyes are often unable to pinpoint the exact location of the prey. The snake is likely to strike, but only if the prey moves.

Fiction:

The skin of a snake is slimy.

Fact:

Although its shiny, lustrous scales may appear wet, in reality the snake's skin feels like a leather belt or a pair of patent leather shoes, smooth, dry, silky and satiny.