38 



The Avifauna. 



flying into it in a large mass when it is 

 apparently too dark to see a spine. The 

 cottontail, the rat, kangaroo mouse, and 

 several other animals and birds care no 

 more for it than for so much swan's down. 

 Why then should the snake, with a far 

 tougher skin, care for it, or care for it when 

 in coil any more than when out of coil ? 

 The other form of the story, that the bird 

 builds a barrier of it, fences in the snake 

 and picks him to death, is still more absurd. 

 I have seen snakes climb more cacti than 

 a road runner would heap up in half a da3\ 

 A cottontail would prefer it to open ground. 



Secondly I doubt if the snake ever strikes 

 itself with the poison fangs. I have often 

 seen rattlesnakes and copper-heads bite 

 themselves when wounded or even when 

 tantalized with a stick, and have often 

 made the rattlesnake of this country do it. 

 But it is with the teeth and not the fangs. 

 They grab with the jaws instead of striking 

 as they do at the thing that is troubling 

 them. I have played with scores of snakes 

 and made them do this many times and it 

 is always the same biting or grabbing 

 movement and not striking. 



Thirdly it is very doubtful if the poison 

 of a snake will injure it even in a iarge 

 vein. The experiments of Dr. Weir Mitch- 

 ell show positively that it will not . I know 

 men who ought to be good observers and 

 who were not writing for the great Ameri- 

 can Educator — boiler-plate — who say they 

 have seen a snake die from its own stroke. 

 But Dr. Mitchell has innoculated snakes 

 with their own poison so often that I prefer 

 his word to that of anyone else. That 

 reputable men should say they have seen it 

 is not strange. Many now living can re- 

 member, as I can, reputable men saying 

 they had seen birds fall from the telegraph 

 wire when the dispatch went through. 

 They had seen dead birds on the ground 

 that had flown against it, in the early days 

 of the telegraph the shock was supposed 

 deadly to small things, and from these two 

 facts it was easy to convince fancy that it 

 had seen them drop. T. S. Van Dyke. 



The White=eyed Vireo. 



Viy^o Noveboracensis. 



TTHE sprightly little White eyed Vireo is 

 an abundant species wherever suitable 

 localities are found. It is not very choice 

 in regard to its habitation, for every bushy 

 swamp, blackberry patch or hazel thicket is 

 found to contain man}' of them. It seems 

 desirous that all .should know of its pres- 

 ence, for it continuously utters its song — if 

 such it can be called — which is remarkable 

 both for oddity and its great strength, 



Nest and Eggs of White Throated Vireo. 



which makes it appear entirely out of pro- 

 portion to the bird which produces it. 



It does not show that fear of mankind 

 which is almost universal among the bird 

 family, but on the approach of one, it ad- 

 vances and meets him half way, where 

 very marked curiosity is exhibited. When 

 they have a nest this lack of suspicion 

 vanishes and the bird is ever on the alert. 



When near their nest, great uneasiness is 

 expressed, and should one venture too near 

 he will be greeted hj a torrent of scolding 

 and abuse, which if it could be translated 

 into English, judging from the emphatic 



