THE MUSEUM. 



43 



ning along the old stone walls of the 

 fields and roads. 



' Arctomys monax (Woodchuck). 

 Common. Mr. White catches many 

 of them in his traps and on severol oc- 

 casions I saw fresh signs of them 



DidclpJiys virginianus (Opossum). 

 The Opossum is quite common. Mr, 

 White catches many of them and from 

 him I secured several skulls. I saw 

 one live specimen, a female, with 

 eight or nine young about the size of 

 half grown rats. 



There are of course many species of 

 mammals which I have not mentioned 

 that undoubtedly occur in this section 

 On my next trip I hope to be able to 

 give more attention to the small mam- 

 mals, such as shrews, moles, mice, 

 etc. , many of which could be easily 

 obtained. 



One insect pest peculiar to the 

 South is the "chigger." Though ex- 

 tremely small they are capable of 

 causing a great deal of trouble and on 

 several occasions I had rather more 

 than I desired of their company. 

 They seem to stay on or among the 

 thick shrubbery of the woods and 

 when anyone walks through this, they 

 abandon the vegetable for an animal 

 feeding ground. By eating their way 

 into the skin they produce little irri- 

 tating sores which increase rapidly in 

 size when scratched. I used to lay 

 open these little sores and treat them 

 with antiseptics and found this a very 

 good treatment. By taking a bath 

 after each day's tramp through the 

 woods one can keep fairly clean of 

 them. 



On some of the old rail fences 

 which border Virginia roads for miles, 

 I found the pretty little lizard Scelo- 

 porus undulatus quite abundant. 

 They were not very timid and one day 

 while out driving I killed several with 

 the whip. They seemed to be most 

 abundant at about eleven o'clock in 

 the morning. When once disturbed 

 they moved very swiftly although 

 most of those that I noticed did not 

 travel more than a few feet at a time. 



I saw several species of snakes. A 

 water snake, Tropidonotus Sipedon I 

 think, appeared to be the most com- 

 mon. It is locally known as the 

 "water moccasin" though it has no 

 venomous qualities. This species is 

 found along the "run" where it is not 

 uncommon to see one or more individ- 

 uals stretched or coiled on the rocks, 

 taking a sun bath. They take to the 

 water readily when disturbed. One 

 small specimen of T. Sipedon which I 

 pulled rather roughly out of a hole in 

 rocks bit me in return, but I kept it 

 alive for some time afterwards and it 

 never in all later handling bit me 

 again. 



I secured one large specimen of the 

 Milk Snake [Ophibolus doliatus tri- 

 angulus) which one of Mr. White's 

 daughters killed and brought home. 

 There is such a general dread of 

 snakes whether venomous or not that 

 I always feel very much pleased to 

 meet with anyone who is not afraid of 

 them. Certainly the nonvenomous 

 snakes are entirely benificial, or near- 

 ly so, and should be kindly treated 

 and protected; and yet how often we 

 find them all crushed and mangled 

 where someone, ignorant of their good 

 qualities and with no appreciation of 

 their beauty, has ruthlessly destroyed. 



I caught one very pretty little grass 

 snake {Liopeltls vernalls) but this 

 species does not appear to be very 

 common. Black snakes {Bascanion 

 constrictor) were quite abundant and 

 I obtained several specimens, some of 

 them being of large size. The moc- 

 casin {Agkistrodon conetortrix) is the 

 only venomous snake that occurs at 

 all commonly in this neighborhood. 

 I did not see any of them on my last 

 trip although I heard of several that 

 were killed during my stay. They are 

 found usually about the rocks and in 

 black-berry patches and not a few are 

 killed when the wheat, large quantities 

 of which is grown, is being harvested. 

 I obtained some interesting data in re- 

 gard to the use of "Rattlesnake Master 

 Weed" as an antidote for the bite of 



