1775. Reptiles and insects are almost innumerable: some of them, indeed, are harmless and beautiful; such as the black-snake, the bead-snake, the garter-snake, the fire-fly, and several sorts of butterflies.—Andrew Burnaby, ‘Travels in North America,’ pp. 21–2. (N.E.D.)
1789. He was unable to prevent swallowing a garter-snake, which was gliding down the water.—Maryland Journal, Sept. 4.
1797. The black snake devoured another, of the species called the garter-snake, only six inches shorter than himself.—Mass. Spy, Oct. 25.
1800. I wish to defend a very harmless and useful reptile. I mean the black and garter snake. They are the farmer’s best friends.—The Aurora, Phila., July 7.
1825. He … worried me, as you’d worry a garter-snake, till I was ready to snap my own head off.—John Neal, ‘Brother Jonathan,’ iii. 254.
1829. [Here] you may find all kinds of snakes, from the pretty little garter snake up to the huge, overgrown, wampum-jawed rattlesnake.—Mass. Spy, July 1: from the Plattsburgh Republican.
1842. One of the clerks in the Baltimore Post Office, on opening a bag of letters, discovered a live garter-snake.—Phila. Spirit of the Times, July 28.
1858. He was about seven feet tall, and as thin as a garter-snake.—Knick. Mag., li. 5 (Jan.).
