BIRD ENEMIES 215 



less satisfactory and less valuable than he imagines; 

 but the professional nest-robber and skin-collector 

 should be put down, either by legislation or with 

 dogs and shotguns. 



I have remarked above that there is probably 

 very little truth in the popular notion that snakes 

 can " charm " birds. But two of my correspondents 

 have each furnished me with an incident from his 

 own experience which seems to confirm the popular 

 belief. One of them writes from Georgia as fol- 

 lows : — 



" Some twenty-eight years ago I was in Calaveras 

 County, California, engaged in cutting lumber. 

 One day, in coming out of the camp or cabin, my 

 attention was attracted to the curious action of a 

 quail in the air, which, instead of flying low and 

 straight ahead as usual, was some fifty feet high, 

 flying in a circle, and uttering cries of distress. I 

 watched the bird and saw it gradually descend, and 

 following with my eye in a line from the bird to 

 the ground, saw a large snake with head erect and 

 some ten or twelve inches above the ground, and 

 mouth wide open, and, as far as I could see, gazing 

 intently on the quail (I was about thirty feet from 

 the snake). The quail gradually descended, its 

 circles growing smaller and smaller, and all the time 

 uttering cries of distress, until its feet were within 

 two or three inches of the mouth of the snake, 

 when I threw a stone, and, though not hitting the 

 snake, yet struck the ground so near as to frighten 

 him, and he gradually started off. The quail, 



