The Rattlesnakes are readily told at once by the rattle.
But the Moccasins are not so easy. There are two kinds: the Water Moccasin, or Cotton-mouth, found in South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, and Louisiana, and the Copperhead, which is the Highland, or Northern Moccasin or Pilot Snake, found from Massachusetts to Florida and west to Illinois and Texas.
Types of Poisonous Snakes
Here are distinguishing marks: The Moccasins, as well as the Rattlers, have on each side of the head, between the eye and nostril, a deep pit.
The pupil of the eye is an upright line, as in a cat; the harmless snakes have a round pupil.
The Moccasins have a single row of plates under the tail, while the harmless snakes have a double row.
The Water Moccasin is dull olive with wide black transverse bands.
The Copperhead is dull hazel brown, marked across the back with dumb-bells of reddish brown; the top of the head more or less coppery.