6 2 THE NA TUKE-STUD V RE VIE W (3 : 2-feb., .907 



NATURE-STUDY AND SCIENCE NOTES 



Snakes Charming Birds. In your November number you published 

 a note concerning the charming of birds by snakes. Some five or six years 

 ago last summer I w^as sitting in our garden in Connecticut when I suddenly 

 became interested in the excited cries of a number of robins and vireos that 

 were swooping down through the maple trees, through a hazelnut bush and 

 up again on the opposite side into a button-ball tree. After a second's rest 

 they would swoop back again, always passing through the same spot in the 

 hazelnut bush. I went over to investigate the matter and found a blacksnake 

 (over four feet long by actual measurement later), wound arnong the branches 

 of the bush, with its head held stiffly erect and its eyes fixed intently on a 

 half-grown vireo perched sleepily on a branch some four or five inches above 

 it. I had hardly seen the bird when it closed its eyes, gave a little gasp, 

 slid off of the branch, and settled down into the snake's mouth, its head 

 protruding. I had nothing with which to kill the snake and while my father 

 was on his way I watched. After settling into the snake's mouth, the bird 

 gave no more sign of life. It died apparently without any pain whatever. 

 The snake began to roll the little body round and round in its mouth. It 

 may have continued this for a minute; then it was killed by my father. I 

 picked up the dead bird and found that the lower part of the body had been 

 entirely stripped of its feathers. I have always believed this to be a case of 

 charming, but I have never seen any other instance of it, before nor since. 

 Calhoun, Ala. W. E. Brown. 



Ferrets and Telephone Wires. A note in the ** Nature and Science" 

 department of St, Nicholas describes the use of ferrets for pulling wires into 

 underground conduits. The ferret is muzzled and fitted with a harness attached 

 to a strong string. A caged rat is placed in the tube and as the ferret chases 

 the rat the string is drawn through the tube. The rat and ferret are caught 

 by a wire cage at the other end. By means of the string a small steel wire 

 is drawn through and this in turn draws the telephone wires. Without the 

 muzzle the ferret might kill the rat and leave it as an obstruction in the tube. 



Cockle-Bur Seeds. There are two seeds in each bur. Professor Arthur, 

 of Purdue University, finds that in round numbers, in 25 per cent of the 

 burs the seeds do not grow, five per cent produce two seedlings each, and 

 70 per cent one seedling, the first year, and about one half of these will pro- 



