raee is Green 



snake, that will run away, if it has a chance, or a 

 puffing-snake, that will make a great show of fight- 

 ing, but like many people is a mere blusterer. It 

 is one of the entertaining sights in nature to see a 

 huge black-snake glide like lightning through a 

 thicket of greenbrier. 



A word more of this same black-snake. It is a 

 harmless creature. Do not believe one syllable of 

 the newspaper stories about their attacking chil- 

 dren. They are falsehoods as black as the creature 

 of which I write. We should remember that the 

 so-called balance of nature is necessarily disturbed 

 by men's interference. Clearing and cultivating 

 land is, in a sense, unnatural, and the more this in- 

 terference is carried on, the more difficult it becomes 

 to prevent an undue proportion of such forms of 

 life as are least affected by the changes wrought by 

 man. Now, the food of the larger snakes is very 

 largely mice, and that of the smaller ones grass- 

 hoppers and other large insects, and insect-larvae 

 or grubs. The farmer knows only too well the 

 destructiveness of mice and insects, and yet al- 

 lows the natural enemies of these to be destroyed 

 whenever found. Snakes should be encouraged. 

 They do nothing but good, except an occasional 

 bird's nest destroyed and the silly nonsense 

 handed from parent to child concerning them 

 should be heard no more. 



But having jumped the fence and found a snake, 

 I was not disposed to conclude therewith the day's 

 108 



