Description
The eastern indigo snake has an even blue-black coloration, with some specimens having a reddish-orange to tan color on the throat, cheeks, and chin. This snake received its name from the glossy iridescent blackish-purple sheen it displays in bright light. This smooth-scaled snake is considered to be the longest native snake species in the United States. The longest recorded specimen measured 2.8 m (9.2 ft). Unlike many snakes, mature male indigo snakes are slightly larger than females. A typical mature male measures 2.13–2.36 m (7.0–7.7 ft) and weighs 3.2–4.5 kg (7.1–9.9 lb), whereas a mature female typically measures around 2 m (6.6 ft) in length and weighs 1.8–2.7 kg (4.0–6.0 lb). In specimens over 2.6 m (8.5 ft), these snakes can weigh up to 5 kg (11 lb). Although the indigo snake is heavier on average, unusually large specimens of the co-occurring Eastern diamondback rattlesnake can outweigh them.
Read more about this topic: Eastern Indigo Snake
Famous quotes containing the word description:
“The next Augustan age will dawn on the other side of the Atlantic. There will, perhaps, be a Thucydides at Boston, a Xenophon at New York, and, in time, a Virgil at Mexico, and a Newton at Peru. At last, some curious traveller from Lima will visit England and give a description of the ruins of St Paul’s, like the editions of Balbec and Palmyra.”
—Horace Walpole (1717–1797)
“Do not require a description of the countries towards which you sail. The description does not describe them to you, and to- morrow you arrive there, and know them by inhabiting them.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“As they are not seen on their way down the streams, it is thought by fishermen that they never return, but waste away and die, clinging to rocks and stumps of trees for an indefinite period; a tragic feature in the scenery of the river bottoms worthy to be remembered with Shakespeare’s description of the sea-floor.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)