Any of various dark-colored, chiefly nonvenomous snakes, such as the black racer or the black rat snake of North America.

Days later, when an eight-inch snake crawled across her bed, she screamed. Finally, after stepping on a baby black rat snake, she moved.

The small Indian mongoose, reaching no more than a foot or two inheight, was originally brought to Puerto Rico and the Hawaiian islandsto protect sugar cane fields from rat and snake damage.