That's a harmless Yellow-bellied Watersnake (Nerodia erythrogaster flavigaster). Plain-bellied is the name used for the species as a whole, but the subspecies in Mississippi is the Yellow-bellied.

And no, you can't tell if a snake is dangerous just by looking at its head. It is NOT a good "litmus test" for venomous vs. non-venomous and I doubt anyone here who knows there snales uses that as a differentiating characteristic.

I once heard one of the world's most famous and experienced herpetologists discussing identifying venomous snakes by these sorts of "quick" criteria. He summed it up nicely by saying, "if you are using that sort of critereon to differentiate the venomous from non-venomous, you shouldn't be messing with the snake at all" (he was referring to the "red against yellow" myth/criterion).
-----
Chris Harrison
San Antonio, Texas

[ Hide Replies ]

• Identifying a snake? - labgirl, Sat May 10 08:25:17 2008
• Looks like a type of water snake - Clydesdale, Sat May 10 08:34:09 2008
• RE: Looks like a type of water snake - labgirl, Sat May 10 08:43:23 2008
• RE: Looks like a type of water snake - Trolligans, Mon May 12 16:53:33 2008
• RE: Identifying a snake? - viborero, Sat May 10 09:17:01 2008
• RE: Identifying a snake? - Labgirl, Sat May 10 10:35:15 2008
• RE: Identifying a snake? - DMong, Sat May 10 12:44:44 2008
• RE: Identifying a snake? - chrish, Sat May 10 15:00:50 2008
• RE: Identifying a snake? - Orocosos, Sat May 10 19:07:59 2008
• RE: Identifying a snake? - labgirl, Sun May 11 14:01:36 2008
• Chris, did you write... - RyanT, Sun May 11 23:33:17 2008
• That would be Chris Mattison, not me./np - chrish, Mon May 12 23:57:53 2008