Cottonmouth Water Moccasins

Continuing the path started in a previous small but informative posting ("Clam Names") towards sorting out common names for common objects, today I discovered in reading the latest New Yorker that the "water moccasin" and "cottonmouth" snake are one and the same. Ever since my youth, when we'd visit my maternal grandparents on their farm and scare ourselves by spotting huge cottonmouths — or water moccasins! — in their pond, I've been confused on this issue.

But no more! From the letters to the editor:

Frazier's interesting piece on wild hogs ["Hogs Wild", 12 December issue] includes some common misinformation when it refers to protecting oneself from "the water moccasins and cottonmouths that inhabit the swamp." In fact, there is but one species of venomous water snake native to North America, Agkistrodon piscivorus, known in some parts of its range as the cottonmouth, in others as the water moccasin, and in some as both. The term "water moccasin" is also used in some locales in reference to nonvenomous water snakes of the genus Natrix, but one would not need snake boots for protection from these.
Douglas J. McReynolds
Fayette, Iowa

[The New Yorker, 23 & 30 January 2006, p. 9.]

Posted on January 26, 2006 at 13.08 by jns · Permalink
In: All, Such Language!

One Response

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  1. Written by Michael
    on Saturday, 25 February 2012 at 14.55
    Permalink

    The Cottonmouth snake, or (Agkistrodon piscivorus), is one that many refer to by a number of different names. Such names that are commonly included are the Water Moccasin, or a combination of that variation, such as Cottonmouth Moccasin, Highland Water Moccasin, or North American Water Moccasin. source: cottonmouthsnake.net

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