50 ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF ONTARIO. 



by one of its hind legs. There was no attempt at resistance. The toad, charmed, or 

 overcome by terror, quietly submitted, and the snake drew in both legs of its unfortunate 

 prey as far as the haunches. At this stage of the proceedings, regardful of the toad's 

 services, I interfered, and disturbed the snake by poking it with my walking-stick. It 

 glided away ; and I supposed, of course the toad would make oflF too. But no, it drew 

 itself together and sat, as stolid as Mark Twain's celebrated frog. After a few minutes 

 the snake came sidling back again. It rubbed its head on the ground, first on one side 

 and then on the other, with the fawning motions of a kitten, and so approached the toad 

 which remained apparently quite apathetic. It seized it by the hind legs as before. The 

 gorging process went on smoothly until the trunk of the toad was reached — then came 

 the strain ! I could see the upper jaw of the snake cautiously raised and slightly pro- 

 truded. Then fresh hold was taken, and the bite with effort secured. As this process 

 was continued, the forward part of the toad's body was more and more distended with 

 the displaced viscera and compressed air. By and by the fore-legs of the toad stuck out 

 angularly, one on each side, and seemed to offer insurmountable difficulties — but no, 

 they in turn were engulphed ; and the last motion I saw of the unfortunate victim, as 

 its face was drawn in, was a solemn wink, which seemed to say, " It's all right, my good 

 Sir ; it will be worse for the snake than for me. I'll give him a horrible fit of indiges- 

 tion ! '* The whole process occupied exactly two hours. How long the toad would live 

 in the snake's inside it is impossible to say. Two naturalists, out on a collecting tour, 

 captured a snake a little more than a yard long, which had a peculiar lump in the middle. 

 Whilst carrying the snake homeward by the tail, they noticed that the lump gradually 

 approached the head. They hung the reptile to a tree still with its head downwards, 

 and awaited developments. The mouth slowly opened, and a large toad covered with a 

 greenish slime dropped out. After some minutes the toad recovered, "and was seem- 

 ingly little the worse for its imprisonment." Science Gossip, 1874, p, 68. 



The snake is not always a conqueroi*, it is sometimes, as we have already seen, a 

 victim. I have seen a pigeon-hawk (Falco columharius) pounce down upon and fly off 

 with a garter snake ; and, stranger still, I have seen a hen shake out a red-bellied snake 

 (Sioreria occipitomacidata, Baird and Girard,) as one would .'<nap a whip, and then gobble 

 it up — beating back her chickens with her wings meanwhile. The air of complacency, 

 befitting one who had done a virtuous action, with which she afterwards strutted off with 

 her brood, was a thing to be remembered. 



Besides the snakes above-mentioned we have in the province of Quebec two others 

 that are frequently met with — the riband snake and the water snake, and two which 

 seem to be local and rare — the milk snake and the grass snake. 



The milk snake (Coroyiella eximiens, De Kay) is found on the hills bordering upon 

 Vermont. I have taken it on Shufelt's Hill which overlooks the village of Sweetsburg. 

 It is an exceedingly beautiful creature. Its body-color is fawn, softening down to 

 white underneath. All along the back and sides are irregular blotches of rich warm 

 brown bordered with very dark brown. 



The grass snake {Cydopliis vernalis, De Kay) I have met with only in the neighbor- 

 hood of Quebec. Two years ago I found a dead specimen in the road near the English 

 Church at New Liverpool ; and last summer I captured the living snake on the Island 

 of Orleans. The circumstances of the capture were these : I had drawn down a 

 branch of a young ash- tree to examine it for larvje, and I was conscious of the fall of a 

 rather heavy body. I glanced down, and at my feet was the snake just^ making off. I 

 took it with my net, and examined it closely. It was about one foot eight inches long. 

 In form it was very elegant ; and its color was a delicate pea-green, without spots or 

 markings of any sort. Underneath the hue was somewhat paler, much like that of the 

 down on the body of the Luna moth. The eye of the snake was black, and its glance 

 was as mild and innocent as that of a canary bird. While I was debating in my mind 

 how I should carry it home — for I had no box with me large enough to hold it — it 

 found a hole in the bottom of my net, escaped through it, and glided into a clump of 

 young thorn-bushes and I saw it again no more. It frequents the trees to catch young 

 birds and insects. 



