[kjc]

It looks like a Black Racer skin. Similar to Black Rat but the tail is longer and the head looks shorter. Black Racers are beautiful, and show irridescent rainbow colors in the sunlight, and are extremely fast.

Snakes have extremely bad vision for up to a week or so before they shed. Actually have a clear scale over their eyes that turns milky white before shedding... they can see movement, but not much else, so they tend to stay put until they're done shedding. They may be more prone to strike during this time, but usually don't eat till shedding is done. And they do move on....

Harmless, non poisonous.

You could bag the skin and have a Herpetologist look at it for identification... or a local farmer could probably tell you too.