Subject: Juvenile Black Racer eating a Juvenile Black Racer, Coluber constrictor

Location: Upshur County, West Virginia

Stock Number: MVF-19

Comments: In 2004 my wife found a small snake that had a tail coming out of its mouth. It sort of looked like a mouse tail as I hurriedly glanced at it. I got the camera and began snapping some pictures, and as I looked through the viewfinder it didn't look like a mouse tail any more. What's more, I realized that this small snake was not swelled out on the sides like he would have been if he had eaten a mouse.

Suddenly I realized that it was a snake tail coming out of the snake's mouth. Ah, an example of ophiophagy—snake eating snake. A great vocabulary word to drop into conversations!