CVI. The _Yellow-Snake_ is in length about seven or eight Foot; the Neck is small, rather less than its Body, which grows bigger, till it be as big as one’s Wrist, and continues so large to the _Anus_; from whence it diminishes by degrees to the Tail. Its Head (which is not very large) is of a dark Colour, and so are the Scales all over the Body, with some yellow Streaks here and there. The Belly is all yellow, like Marygold, whose Flowers are cordial. These Serpents are for the most part to be found in the woody Mountains of _America_, coil’d up in the Paths, as Ropes in a Ship: they are not hurtful, unless irritated; they feed on Birds, Rats, _&c._ which they swallow whole, and therefore Nature has given them such a folded, rugous, inward Tunicle of the Stomach, that it may extend, and receive things of large Dimensions. Many of them have been killed with thirteen or fourteen Rats in their Bellies[271]. Footnote 271: _Sir Hans Sloan’s Voyages to Madeira, Barbad._ vol. ii. Lond. 1725. It has been observed, that the Heart of this Serpent was beating an Hour after the Head was cut off, and that it would turn and twist its Body strangely in its Dissection, for a long time after the Bowels were out: The Lungs were very membranaceous, being nothing but Blood-Vessels and Air-Bladders. So a very learned Author. _ibid._ CVII. The _Chicken-Snake_, so called because of its Executions in the Poultry-yard, where it devours all Eggs, and lesser Birds that come in its way. These Serpents are of a sooty Colour, and will very readily roll themselves round a smooth-bark’d Pine-tree, eighteen or twenty Foot high, where there is no manner of hold, and there sun themselves, and sleep all the pleasurable part of the Day, reserving the hours of Darkness for rambling[272]. There is no great matter of Poison in them. Here the Historian mentions the _Eel-Snake_, improperly so called, I think, because it is nothing but a _Leach_, that only sucks, and can’t sting nor bite, so as to do any Damage. Footnote 272: _Natural History of Carolina_, p. 134. CVIII. The _Vectis_, whose Head, strictly speaking, is neither round, flat, nor pointed, but looks like a Swelling on both sides, one stretching transversly, like a Bar that guards a Door, or, if you please, a _Bettee_, an Engine to break open Doors. Though this Sense be not intended here, yet ’tis true, that _Serpents_ do make _forcible Entries_, but it is always with Teeth and Tail, by which they often throw down the whole Fabrick, and drive out the Inhabitant. CIX. The _Agnasen_ Serpent, called the _Mother of Ants_, because it lodges in their Apartments, and other warm Situations. We read of _Ants_ in the _East-Indies_ that build their Houses above Ground, and with the _finest Clay_, of which the People make their _Idols_; their little Houses are like strong _Butts_, hollow within, where they dwell, and breed in Nests like Honey-combs.