155 



it. We have more than once observed the sagacity of this serpent 

 as it captured a catfish or some othei' fish and carrying it out of 

 tlie water to the roclvs on tlie sliore, wliere the fish was helpless 

 and more easily devoured. AVe saw one very small specimen of 

 Water Snake on the shore of Cayuga Lake, Ithaca, N. Y., which 

 was vainly trying to swallow a wriggling catfish, Ameiurus nehv- 

 losus, or Bullhead, which was several times its own diameter, but 

 which it had captured by seizing the lower jaw in its mouth and 

 had taken from the water to the rocky shore a few feet away. 



In literature we find the food of Water Snakes reported as fol- 

 lows: Frogs (Harlan, Holbrook and De Kay), toads (Holbrook and 

 Morse), Batrachians (Atkinson), fish (Holbrook, De Kay, Morse, 

 Garman and Atkinson), insects (Morse), and crustaceans (Atkinson). 

 The above are references to reports which have not stated definitely 

 that writers have seen or known it eating any of th(>se creatures. 

 Of definite statements we find one by D.e Kay in which rpj)orts 

 he found a Water Snake eating a young pike, and one by Surface, 



Fig. 10. — Diagram showing' the percerntages of Food 

 Items of Spotted Water Snake {Nutri.c sipedon) : 33 

 per cent. Fish; 15 per cent. Insects; 15 per cent. 

 Toads; 7 per cent. Salamanders; 8 per cent. Frogs; 

 4 per cent. Undetermined Mice; 3 per cent. Shrews; 

 7 per cent. Insects, Probaibly from Toads; 4 per 

 cent. Undetermined Vertebrates; 4 per cent. Tad- 

 poles. 



H. A., "On Bemoval of Lampreys from the Lakes of New York," 



189G, in which he states he found it feeding on the Lake Lamprey, 



the Bullhead or Black Catfish, the Brook Trout and Wliite Suckers. 



While the food of this serpent is generally supposed to be fishes 



