Teachers' Leaflet. 



593 



Tile milk snake. 



LESSON LIL 



THE MILK SNAKE. 



Purpose. — To make the pupils familiar with the habits of this com- 

 mon snake and to teach them its usefulness to farmers. 



The ground color of this snake is pale gray, but it is covered with so 

 many brown or drak gray saddle-shaped blotches that they might seem 

 to form the ground color. The lower side is white marked with square, 

 black spots and blotches. It is about a yard long when fully grown. 

 The Milk Snake is^ often called the Spotted Adder, although it does not 

 belong to the Adders at all, but to the family of King Snakes. 



Observations for pupils: 



1. Where is the milk snake found? 



2. What does it eat? 



3. How does it kill its prey? 



4. Can it climb a tree ? 



5. Does it drink milk? 



6. Where are it eggs laid ? 



7. How do they look ? 



8. How long are the snakes when they hatch from the egg? 

 Does the snake wink? 

 Can the milk snake swim? 



9- 

 10. 



Facts for teacher. — ^This is a snake which is said to milk cows, which is not 

 true. It would not milk a cow if it could and it could not if it would. It has 

 never been found to drink milk in captivity, and a full-grown milk snake could 

 not drink more than two teaspoonfuls of milk if it were thirsty. So in any case 

 its depredations upon the milk supply need not be feared. It frequents milk 

 houses and stables hunting for rats and mice and is thus of great benefit to the 

 farmer. It constricts its prey, squeezing it to death in its coils ; it has also been 

 found to eat other species of snakes. During July and August the mother snake 

 lays from seven to twenty eggs; they are distributed in loose soil, in moist rub- 

 bish, in compost piles, etc. The egg is about one and one-eighth inches, in length 

 and one and one-half inches in diameter and in shape a symmetrical oval. The 

 egg shell is soft, white, like kid leather, and looks like a white toadstool. The 

 young hatch nearly two months after the eggs are laid, and the eggs increase in 



