The Somerset Herald

Washington, July 14.—A snake of a very rare kind is now at the Smithsonian Institution. It arrived here on Friday, having been captured near the famous Buck Horn wall on the line of the Baltimore and Ohio railroad, near Deer Park, Md. The peculiarity of the snake is that it can and does whistle and sing like a young mocking bird. In general appearance it is like the ordinary snake, except its head is shaped somewhat like a pug-dog. It is four feet in length, and the largest part of its body is four and one-quarter inches in circumference. When it whistles or sings it makes a series of jumps like a frog. The head snake professor of the Smithsonian Institution is now at Wood's Holl, Mass., and it will probably be sent there for his examination and classification. It is in shape and color altogether different from any of the African singing snakes, and besides issues a louder and more harmonic sound than is recorded of any of the classes of snakes that are found in the East Indies. A similar character of a snake is said in books to be frequently seen on the Island of Sumatra. So far this is the first singing or whistling snake that has been found in this country. The man who captured it supposed he was chasing a young mockingbird.