Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(US) used in combs. to describe a person with a particular habit or type of behaviour; such as parlor snake at parlor snake under parlor n.

1914		H. Hershfield Abie the Agent 15 Oct. [synd. cartoon strip] He loves to read — He’s a regular ‘book snake’.
1926		Wood & Goddard Dict. Amer. Sl. 50: snake. A habitue, used in parlor-snake, lounge-snake, and the like. A hound, a lizard.