Norton] THE SXAKE 25 



ranking than is granted it even by teachers. It has many advan- 

 tages for classroom study completely lacking in other live things. 



I shall not touch upon the snake as an economically valuable 

 animal directly; reasons for conserving this "emotionally neutral 

 or unfriendly helper of man" are certainly sufficiently understood; 

 they do not need re-statement here; nor shall I, for the sake of 

 giving, mention life-histories. I wish to deal only with the snake 

 from the classroom, nature-study period standpoint. 



The age at which children might begin this study is a matter to 

 be determined by the teacher; experience and present classes 

 should be indicators. It might be wise to inform parents of the 

 proposed study; this should be done with tact, emphasizing the 

 perfect safety strongly, then urging the necessity. The earlier the 

 age at which the child "learns" the snake, the more snakes will be 

 spared. Incidentally, children talk of their school work, such a 

 "horror" topic would receive more than the usual mouth-to-mouth 

 advertising; conservation would be carried on in this way, and 

 education spread. Then, too, the quicker a child can recognize a 

 venomous reptile on sight, the better; but statistics show the 

 poison danger to be inconsiderable. There are other advantages in 

 early study also, but they hardly need recounting. Here, as in 

 other branches of organized nature-study, grading would be used 

 and of course a single specimen would do for all grades. 



It is not proposed to bring a venomous snake into the classroom 

 for study. But the study of the Elapine and Crotaline snakes, the 

 two families to which the seventeen species of poisonous snakes 

 found in the United States belong, should be studied, by compari- 

 son, early. This feature and the economic value are of equal 

 importance, for in many communities, New York city for example, 

 the presence of dangerous snakes in the near-surrounding country, 

 often popular picnic grounds, is not suspected. In the little snake 

 instruction I have attempted (solely to adults) I always treated: 

 "How to know the dangerous snakes, "first. But this is up to the 

 teacher, besides geographical location may dictate a policy; it is 

 out of my domain to suggest a course; I trust I have not already 

 treaded upon any toes. 



Now that it has been decided (?) to give the snake its turn in the 

 classroom, the first consideration is a cage. A simple box of 

 smoothed, half inch boards 9 x 9 x 30 inches (a boy with a couple 

 of soap boxes should do the trick) will suffice, providing it has a 



