78 COLUBER CONSTRICTOR. 



bird not iinfrcquently takes the precaution to select such bushes as are on small 

 islands, or such as have their roots surrounded by water, and thus her home is 

 more secure. Now the Black Snake chooses precisely the same localities, know- 

 ing, probably, the haunts of its prey. The snake begins the war by besieging the 

 nest; the old bird, aware of its intention, attacks it with fluttering and uncertain 

 motions, accompanied by a plaintive cry of distress, and is then said to be 

 "charmed." The snake is at last either driven off, or it succeeds in its enterprise, 

 captures the young, and not unfrequently the old bird is killed in the struggle 

 and devoured; though the birds most commonly found in the stomach of the Black 

 Snake are young and frequently unfledged. Sometimes the old bird by her cries 

 calls in the assistance of her neighbours to drive aAvay the aggressor: I have 

 seen more than a dozen birds thus engaged with a large Black Snake that had 

 probably just committed some depredation, but was now quietly stretched on a 

 rock, basking in the sun; and it was not a little singular that birds of very 

 different genera, and those seldom seen together, all united in this warfare 

 against a common enemy, and finally compelled it to seek shelter among some 

 low thick shrubs, by the violence of their assault. 



Another remark of Dr. Barton, on "fascination," is worthy of attentive obser- 

 vation: he says, "as far as he could learn after many inquiries, that the season 

 of the year at which any particular species of bird has been seen under the 

 influence of the fascinating power of a serpent, corresponds with the exact time 

 of their '■'•incubation'''' or rearing their young." 



Geographical Distribution. The Coluber constrictor is found in nearly all 

 parts of the United States, and may be regarded as the most common of our 

 serpents. Kalm met with it as far north as latitude 43; thence it reaches to the 

 shores of the Gulf of Mexico: nor is it confined to the Atlantic states, but 

 abounds in the western country; Say found it even as high as Engineer Canton- 

 ment on the Missouri, and I have received specimens from Louisiana and 

 Arkansas. 



