36 



GLEANINGS FROM NATURE. 



body when discovered. This, no doubt, sounds like 

 one of the " snake lies " referred to above, but the 



green snake, with the 

 mark of the black one's 

 teeth upon its body, was 

 preserved in alcohol, 

 and is yet in the writer's 

 collection. 



In the second in- 

 stance a pupil brought 

 in a king snake, Ophi- 

 bolus getulus sayi (Hoi- 

 brook), 12 inches in 

 length, which had pro- 

 truding from its mouth 

 four inches of the tail 

 of a common garter 

 snake, Eutainia sirtalis 

 (L.). The latter was 13 

 inches in length and 

 the front nine inches of 

 its body was within 

 that of its captor. When 



(taken the kinsr snake 

 MKtt/tfl iffiyfl tried to disgorge its 

 \mm WM prey but his fartership 



was too deeply lodged. 

 The two were quickly 

 ** consigned to a bottle 



Fig. 6-An Illustrated " Snake Lie." of a l co } lo ] t h ere to gerve 



as a forcible illustration of the fact that the king snake 

 is in reality both a king and a cannibal among its kind. 



