36 Wild Bird Guests 



ducks by the legs and drag them under the water. 

 Mr. E. A. Quarles, an officer of the American 

 Game Protective and Propagation Association, 

 told me of a snapping turtle which he knew had 

 killed fifteen young wood ducks, and Mr. C. H. 

 Pease of Canaan, Connecticut, showed me a 

 photograph of a full-grown duck which he and 

 his wife had seen mangled and killed by a snap- 

 ping turtle. The duck was feeding with its head 

 under the water, and the reptile seized the head 

 in its powerful jaws and crushed it. 



Snakes are notorious devourers of young birds. 

 They are splendid climbers and thus are able to 

 rob nests built in trees and bushes as well as those 

 on the ground. The skulls of snakes are loosely 

 put together and the muscular tissue which 

 binds them is very elastic. This permits them 

 to be stretched to an almost unbelievable 

 extent and is the secret of a snake's ability to 

 swallow creatures much larger than his own 

 head. I once caught a milk snake at a catbird's 

 nest with a fully fledged young catbird just 

 disappearing down its throat. Needless to say 

 the meal was interrupted. The snake, which I 

 afterwards measured, was twenty-seven inches 

 long. The common black snake, perhaps be- 

 cause of its large size, is one of the most de- 

 structive. Some years ago I was approaching a 



