The beautiful blue house snake--four feet in length, with rows of spots
on its side--is often mistaken for the corn snake, its habits being very
similar. The lower part of the body is of a silvery white, tesselated
with oblong marks of black. The ignorant fancy that it sucks the milk
from the udders of the cows, and hence its name; though, probably, it
has no objection to a little milk, if it finds it in a pan. Its object,
however, in entering houses and farms, is to search for mice and
insects, on which it in reality feeds, never interfering with the cows
or other animals.