56 GLEANINGS FROM NATURE. 



hollow stumps and close alongside old logs. The 

 young, for the first year or more of their lives, are 

 ashy gray with about 45 square, chocolate blotches on 

 the back, and a row of alternating smaller blotches 

 along each side. There is also a dark band between 

 the eyes, and the foremost spot on the back is forked, 

 each division extending a short distance onto the 

 head. One of these young, 16 inches in length, which 

 contained a large shrew, partially digested, was taken 

 June 11, 1894. 



A pilot snake over five feet in length was once 

 kept by the writer in a vacant room with a great 

 horned owl, some turtles and salamanders. It was 

 supposed that the size of the owl, which is one of our 

 largest birds of prey, and has a very strong beak and 

 talons, would prevent a conflict, and that a " happy 

 family," equal in interest and peaceful inclinations to 

 any seen in a menagerie, would result, but events 

 proved otherwise. One night a strange noise was 

 heard in the room, and on investigating its cause it 

 was found that a "struggle for existence" had taken 

 place between the two leading members of the fam- 

 ily. Whether the snake attacked the owl or the owl 

 the snake was never known, but the snake proved 

 itself the "fitter in the struggle," and quickly squeezed 

 the life out of the owl by wrapping two coils tightly 

 about it. Perhaps the snake would, if let alone, have 

 attempted to swallow the owl, but a desire to secure 

 the latter in as good a condition as possible for a per- 

 manent specimen led to its immediate removal from ;i 

 literal embrace of death. 



