"Wiz" wrote in message
ps.com...
I believe the article was not saying it was a snake that was black in
color, but that it was a "black snake," also known as a "rat snake."

It's true that many people refer to the black rat snake as a "black snake",
but the article is not clear on this, and there are other black snakes
referred to as a "black snake".

If the article had said it was a "black rat snake" then we'd know for sure
what kind of snake it was. But they didn't, so we don't.