Roy Wayne Chrisman, age , 10 Tenn., for his question

How can you tell the moccasin snake from the cottonmouth?

The copperhead, alias the cottonmouth, alias the water moccasin is one and the same breed of snake .. a deadly poisonous pit viper somewhat like the deadly poisonous rattlers. There are a couple of cousins in this breed of snake with slight variations. The breed is native to the eastern states with a westward range reaching through the praires of Texas.

The copperhead, more than a yard long, lives on high, dry ground. His head is copper color, his body blotched with coppery colored hour glasses. The water moccasin is a swamp snake, larger and darker than his cousin. Both members of this deadly breed have mouths lined with skin as white as cotton.