coachwhip

/kohch"hwip', -wip'/, n.

1. a whip, usually having a long lash, used in driving a coach horse.

2. Also called coachwhip snake. a long, slender snake, Masticophis flagellum, of the southern U.S. and Mexico, having a thin tail resembling a braided whip.

[1730-40; COACH + WHIP]

* * *

▪ snake

      (Masticophis, sometimes Coluber, flagellum), nonvenomous snake of the family colubridae that ranges from the southern half of the United States to west central Mexico. It averages 1.2 metres (4 feet) long, but it is occasionally twice that length. It is slender, and its tail is marked like a plaited whip. The eastern subspecies is brownish; western subspecies tend to be reddish (red racer or whip snake) or black (western black racer).

      The swift-moving coachwhip captures lizards, small mammals, large insects, and occasionally rattlesnakes; it kills by biting while the prey is pinned under its coils. The whip snakes in the western United States (M. bilineatus, M. lateralis, and M. taeniatus) are relatives of the coachwhip with similar habits and body forms. All are egg-layers.

* * *