558 



AMERICAN FORESTRY 



attended and successful, held before May 15, netted 

 many specimens, and the exhibit is attracting much at- 

 tention. 



A snake hunt, to phrase it mildly, is exhilarating. 

 Quite naturally the sighted snakes resent capture and 

 provide thrills a plenty. Hands and forked sticks do 

 most of the catching. Often, indeed, are the hunters 

 bitten — just scratches that hardly break the skin, clean 

 and painless — but these seem to have a parado.xical ef- 

 fect ; they diminish rather than increase fear. 



The boys have taken to snake hunting like ducks to 

 water; but they do not hunt — they ransack. A swamp 

 is approached and half surrounded with cold-blooded 

 efficiency, then it is combed from end to end ; in squads 

 with a leader they spread out and nothing alive escapes. 

 No regiment could attack trenches with more vim and 

 determination than the youngsters bestow upon old stumps 

 and rotting logs. Literally no stone is left unturned. 

 And a glance backward at the country hunted gives evi- 

 dence of the battle waged. 



Up to their knees in mud and ooze they will collar 

 a banded swamp snake. Matrix fasciata sipedon. as long 

 as themselves and bring it in ; swimming avails the rep- 

 tile nothing; on a sunny upland they will race a blue 

 racer, blacksnake ; it will have no chance to find a hole — 

 a tail in sight means a snake in bag every .shot. Even 

 the evil-looking and bad-acting hognose, the stubby, slow- 

 moving snake that hisses loudly and flattens out when 

 disturbed, the much-feared but altogether harmless "ad- 

 der," the liluffer of the snake kingdom, is shown no 

 consideration — ■ merely and unceremoniously bagged, 

 hisses and all. It is characteristic of boys to do any- 

 thing as hard as it can be done. 



Milk snakes, several varieties of garter snakes, ribbon 

 and De Kay's snakes have all been captured by New 

 York and New Jersey members. The value of these 

 snakes is very distinctly, though a little unhappily, dem- 

 onstrated. Our hunts took jjlace in early spring, but a 

 short time after the end of the winter hibernation. The 

 snakes were hungry ; nearly all that we catight h:id re - 

 cently eaten. ,'\s is always the case, capturing or handling 

 a snake shortly after it has eaten will cause it to dis- 

 gorge any food it may have taken. Numbers of our 

 .specimens, even while talks were being given on the 

 subject, disgorged the partly digested bodies of small 

 rodents. 



Indirectly in this way several farmers were "shown." 

 They would ask us what we were looking foi on ihcir 

 land. Our reply would give us "the run of the ]:)lace. 

 Take every bloomin' critter y' see." We took the trouble 

 to talk and illustrate the value of the snake to the.se men 

 and in every case their ideas immediately changed. Tn 

 one instance the man finally replied, smiling: "Well, if 

 that's the case, guess I want all my snakes and I'll have 

 to ask you gentlemen to move on." And another in 

 our presence called his five sons from the house and told 

 them to give the snakes a chance. 



The older and more experienced herpetologists have 

 brought in copperheads, Ancistrodon contortnx, and 



timber rattlers, Crotalus horridus. About every specie 

 of sn.ake in this section is represented in one or more 

 of the society's collections. Turtles, frogs, toads and 

 a rather complete collection of local salamanders, includ- 

 ing a round dozen species, are also in the exhibits. Many 

 snakes not found nearby are also in the collections, pine 

 and king snakes, green snaices and boas. 



.All of these private collections are interesting; one 

 contains the ugliest snake, another a sort of misfit, a 

 swamp snake with rusty skin instead of the usual dark, 

 faintly marked back ; a five-foot snake caught by a four- 

 foot boy, and so on. The value of these collections is 

 great; they not only give their owners certain responsi- 

 bility, but are talked about and widely viewed. 



To visitors the boys enjoy "showing oflf," so, indirectly, 

 taking the fear from other people; they "dare" visitors 

 to handle a snake and, when once acquainted, the dislike 

 and repugnance disappear. To the writer it is always 

 a source of wonder to see how quickly the snake wins 

 friends. My own fear vanished in five minutes. It would 

 seem that unjustified prejudice accounts for the snake's 

 iin])opularity. 



The most interesting of these private collections is 

 owned by George \"on P.uehren, who lives at an apart- 

 ment on Southern Boulevard, New York City. All the 

 scr]5ents found in this section of the United States are 

 represented. He lives alone with them and no mother's 

 proud young ho]3eful could be in better condition or have 

 more painstaking care. Many of the specimens he has 

 had for years : many he has reared from eggs or seen 

 born. -Ml are very tame and a few seem to show slight 

 intelligence. At present he has 30 odd specimens, includ- 

 ing a young, jierfcct boa. 



ei 



ANTS IN GARDENS 

 .\RDENERS who are worried about ants in their 



gardens may be interested in the statement that 

 jj[||/j ants in gardens do not as a rule cause as much 



injury as their nimibers would indicate. They 

 feed only to a very limited extent on growing vegetables. 

 Many of them feed on the honeydew secreted by ])lant 

 lice and their jirescnce is often an indication that tlic 

 plants are infested with these insects. 



In case it is found that the ants are actually injuring 

 the plants many of them may be killed by injecting into 

 their nests kerosene, gasoline or carbon bisulphide. In 

 the case of small nests the liquid may be applied with a 

 small oilcan, .\bout an ounce should be injected into each 

 opening. In larger nests the opening may be enlarged 

 with a sharp stick and a greater quantity of the liquid 

 used, .\fter the liquid has been placed in the ants' bur- 

 row the o])ening should be closed with earth and ])acked 

 down with the foot. In case of large ant hills it will add 

 to the effectiveness of the treatment if an old rug or 

 wet gunny .sacks are placed over the hill to hold in the 

 fumes. Some of the ants may escape and start new col- 

 onics, it is therefore usually necessary to go over the 

 garden several times and treat new nests when they be- 

 come noticeable. 



