Uncle Dick and Lisa's Old Time Animal Tales

The black snake is the bitter enemy of the rattlesnake. When they meet, a fight takes place, and the black snake generally conquers. A correspondent of the Forest and Stream thus describes a combat which he saw between two of these snakes.
In the middle of the road lay an ordinary black snake, and quite a large rattlesnake eyeing one another fiercely, both ready for an attack. The party stood motionless to see the battle take place; but he waited long, and still the combatants did not move. At length, tired of watching, he slightly shook the bar of the fence, which caused the rattlesnake to look from its opponent to himself. Instantly, the black snake sprang on the other, twisted itself tightly around its neck, and then its body, and glided off, and there lay the rattlesnake, dead. The victim, we all know, was a powerful foe, the victor as harmless a snake as there is in the land.