WILD ANIMALS, ETC. 69 



protection against this, his worst enemy. We have two or 

 three species of black snake, very long and slender, one with 

 a white ring around his neck. We have water snakes of sev- 

 eral species and the common garter snake, but none of our ser- 

 pents are poisonous, except the rattle snake, and the copper- 

 head. The two latter, are mostly confined now, to our hilly 

 region, and will soon be gone. We have three species of tor- 

 toises, viz: large black, small brown, with yellow spots on its 

 shell, and the soft shelled tortoise. The latter lives wholly in 

 the water, and is equal to the sea turtle, for food. It weighs 

 from six to ten pounds, sometimes more. 



Lizzards are common in the woods, and in pleasant weather 

 bask on old logs, in the sun shine. Newts are common, in our 

 waters. And in the Ohio river, and indeed, in all our rivers, 

 is an animal, between the newt and alligator, and is often tak- 

 en on hooks set for fishes. It is sometimes two, or, even three 

 feet in length, and of a most disgusting appearance. Is it the 

 Proteus-lateralis ? 



Cray fishes are quite abundant, in our low lands, some of 

 which are six inches long, weighing eight ounces. They taste 

 like the lobster, and have the property of reproducing their 

 antennse, when broken off. Their limbs when cooked, taste 

 like the lobster or oyster — saltish. We have all sorts of frogs 

 and toads. Our bull frogs are larger than any east of the 

 mountains. 



Our insects are too numerous to be even enumerated, unless 

 we devoted a large space to them. One of the most interest- 

 ing and curious, is the cicada. It is somewhat smaller than 

 the harvest fly. They are said to appear at regular periods, 

 which some persons have fixed at once in seven years. Otiiers 

 have asserted, that these periodical returns are once in four- 

 teen years — others say, once in seventeen years. His com- 

 mon name is "locust," he appears by the middle of May, and 

 they are all gone, early in July. When he first appears, on 

 the surface of the earth, ho resembles a grub worm; is half an 

 inch long, and three-eighths of an inch in diameter. He rises 

 from the earth, perpendicularly, by a hole, which he makes, 



