416 Habits of the Black Snake. 



earlier than most other birds ; but, I am inclined to think, 

 not quite, and not even nearly, so early as seems hitherto to 

 have been imagined. 



The general appearance of the crossbill is rather clumsy 

 and uncouth, and the head large and heavy. The flesh is 

 exceedingly good eating, something like game to the taste, 

 as I learnt by having one cooked which was too much shot 

 to be worth preserving. The craws of all my specimens were 

 filled with the seeds of the Scotch pine [Pinus sylvestris L.~\ 

 or larch [Larix europae N a Dec."], and nothing else. They are 

 better off this cold weather than most other birds, as their 

 food is always in plenty, and not dependent on the vicissitudes 

 of the weather. 



Doncaster, February, 1836. 



[In VII. 54 — 56., and previous places there indicated ; in 

 VII. 58. ; and in IX. 202. ; is information on the crossbill.] 



" *itor/iq nisrfo 



Art. IV. Notes on the Habits of the Black Snake (Coluber con- 

 slrictor). By G. Ord, Esq. Extracted from a Letter addressed 

 to C. Waterton, Esq. 



"Black Snakes," says [Mr. R. C] Taylor [VIII. 541.], 

 u are called racers, from their occasionally chasing men with 

 great ferocity. They move with astonishing swiftness; the 

 eye can scarcely follow their rapid passage." Flights of ima- 

 gination are admissible in poetry and romance, but not in 

 natural history. When the black snake is first startled, he 

 moves swiftly for a few feet, by a sudden spring, as it were : 

 his speed afterwards is by no means extraordinary, inasmuch 

 as a boy of ten years old could outrun him. With respect to 

 man, he is entirely harmless ; for, should he bite you, his little 

 teeth occasion only a slight scratch. Recollect, he has no 

 fangs. When you first lay hands upon him, he will seize you 

 with his mouth, apparently in great anger; but his choler 

 is of short duration : in the space of five minutes he will be 

 as gentle as a pet kitten, and you may put him either into 

 your bosom or your pocket with the utmost security. Of all 

 our serpents, this species is, perhaps, the most useful to our 

 farmers, in consequence of the immense numbers of mice 

 which it devours, particularly field and meadow mice. One 

 black snake in a barn would drive all the rats and mice from 

 the premises. Explain all these things to our stupid farmers, 

 and they would laugh in your face. " What ! " they would 

 say, " tell us of the utility of snakes ! Do we not know that 



