Milk Snakes Pt. 1

HOW THE MILK SNAKE GOT ITS NAME

    Milk snakes are not the color of milk, so that is not why they are called milk snakes. Many years ago, farmers saw the snakes in their barns. Sometimes when the farmers milked cows, the cows had very little milk. The farmers believed that the snakes had drunk the milk, and so they called them milk snakes. Today we know that milk snakes do not drink milk. They were most likely in the barns hunting mice and rats. However, the name has stuck.                          

   Nine kinds of milk snakes dwell in the United States and Canada: the eastern, Louisiana, New Mexico, Mexican, Central Plains, pale, red and Utah milk snakes, and the scarlet king snake.

                              

Uncle Kiwi (Shannen)