Here's a shot of a Black Rat Snake (Elaphe obsoleta) my wife and I (almost quite literally) stumbled across during a hike in New York this past fall. It wasn't too happy with me taking pictures, but I was able to get some decent ones. As you can see from the photo, though, it's a rather plain black snake and it has a number of common names. Some taxonomic arguments surround it, however, some favoring splitting the species up into several based on location and DNA.
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The farmer's best friend. Happy hunting.
I recall reading from various online resources that Elaphe has been split into several genera. Not sure where the black rat snake stands (too lazy to Google for it now).