THOSE HORSE-HAIR SNAKES 7 1 
source of the snake was discovered. I had pro- 
cured a box of grasshoppers and crickets for bait, 
numbering some hundreds, and once, upon open- 
ing it, observed two of the thread-like creatures 
entangled like a snell among the insects. Further 
experience while baiting the hooks with the grass- 
hoppers revealed others in the bodies of both 
crickets and grasshoppers, which seemed in no 
way disturbed by their presence. 
So the " horse-hair snake " may be written down 
a myth. Its existence prior to the time we dis- 
cover it in the brook or puddle has been spent 
under the hospitable roof of the insects men- 
tioned, upon escaping from which it seeks the 
water to lay its eggs. The young in turn seek 
the grasshoppers and crickets which frequent 
their haunt, and thus the routine is continued, to 
the possible annoyance of the grasshopper and the 
complete mystification of the rural scientist. 
