SNAKES CHARMING BIRDS. 



included in the lot a fine piece, a lit- 

 tle like a black walking-stick ; and 

 very soon thereafter his mother was 

 like to go into convulsions owing to 

 a snake being in the house and 



acting like ^Psop's viper, which 

 caused the husband great surprise 

 before he managed to see how it 

 had got there at that time of the 

 year. 



SNAKES CHARMING BIRDS* 



I HAVE frequently noticed para- 

 graphs in American newspapers 

 on snakes charming birds, but I 

 never witnessed the phenomenon, 

 nor incidentally met one who had, 

 perhaps from the subject of snakes 

 not being alluded to, till lately, 

 when the fact came up on that ques- 

 tion being discussed. One of the 

 parties is an acquaintance of sixteen 

 years' standing, and the other the 

 father of another, both thoroughly 

 reliable, and unknown to each 

 other. 



The first, when " gunning " in 

 the woods, about the middle of 

 September, had his attention arrest- 

 ed by a bird, evidently in great dis- 

 tress, chirping and hovering close 

 to the top of a bush nearly nine 

 feet high, with a clear stem of from 

 three to four feet. It seemed to be 

 attracted by some object, which 

 turned out to be a snake, whose 

 head protruded at times from 

 among the leaves, and was within 

 twelve or fifteen inches of the bird, 

 which kept gradually but steadily 

 approaching it, when the snake was 

 shot, and the bird flew away. The 

 other gentleman, when passing, in 

 June, along a road having an 

 abruptly-falling wooded slope at 

 the side of it, noticed, on a little 

 lower level than himself, a bird 

 pretty well out on a branch of a 

 tree (having a clear stem of about 

 eight feet, and about ten inches in 

 diameter), chirping and fluttering, 



* Dated April 2d, 1873 ; printed May 

 3d- 



and moving from side to side ; and 

 facing it, on the same branch, to- 

 wards the trunk, at about twenty 

 inches from it, was a snake, moving 

 its head in a similar way. On a 

 piece of wood being thrown at 

 them, the snake came down the tree, 

 and the bird flew off. 



In both instances the snakes were 

 of the black species, about four 

 feet long, and the intended prey 

 catbirds (about the size of an 

 English thrush), so called from 

 their cry somewhat resembling that 

 of a cat. The impulse one has on 

 meeting a snake is to avoid it or 

 kill it. But in a case like the pres- 

 ent, a naturalist would have " be- 

 come a party to the suit," by quiet- 

 ly approaching as near as possible 

 and patiently seeing the thing 

 through, and then killing the snake. 

 And that could have been easily 

 done, for the two said that the 

 birds and snakes were so engrossed 

 as to seem unconscious of their pres- 

 ence, and did not move till actual- 

 ly disturbed. The first was within 

 about ten feet and the other about 

 twenty feet of the scene, and paused 

 about two minutes before they 

 realised what was passing before 

 them. The circumstance of the 

 snakes and birds being of the same 

 species respectively, should enable 

 us to judge of part of the phenom- 

 enon by comparison. In the first 

 case there was no nest on the tree 

 to attract the bird to it, and most 

 likely none in the second ; and there 

 can be no doubt that the birds were 



