Part II.] NATURAL ENEMIES OF BIRDS. 245 



natural way must first clear the breeding pond of this terrible 

 enemy; else it will be difficult to rear young birds. 



Professor H. A. Surface records the stomach contents of 

 nineteen individuals of this species. Only one had eaten a 

 bird.^ It is probable that young ducklings were scarce in 

 the region of Pennsylvania where these turtles were taken. 

 Haj^ found a robin in one stomach.- These turtles often 

 are taken by a strong fishhook baited with tainted meat at- 

 tached by a wire to a strong but springy stake driven into 

 the bank. 



The wood turtle or sculptured turtle {Clemviys insculptus) is 

 reported as taking ducklings and goslings, but I can find no 

 convincing evidence in proof of the charge. This is a small 

 turtle and it is probable that most of the birds eaten by it 

 are such as it finds dead. Professor Surface found remains of 

 birds in two out of twenty-six stomachs.^ 



Snakes. 



Snakes are carnivorous and insectivorous. It is well known 

 the world over that they destroy birds, their eggs and young. 

 It has been asserted often that they are able to charm birds and 

 thus render them defenseless, — a statement hardly borne out by 

 the facts. Occasionally, careful observers have reported a case 

 where a bird seemed unable to escape from a snake but drew 

 nearer and nearer. Mrs. Olive Thome Miller narrates such 

 an occurrence in "A Bird Lover in the West" (pages 251 to 

 253), but as she drove the snake away the observation was 

 inconclusive. The theory that sometimes birds are attracted 

 to the head of a motionless snake by its flickering tongue, 

 which they mistake for a worm or insect, is supported by 

 good evidence. 



Some snakes seem to live almost wholly or altogether on 

 forms of life other than birds, but there are some species so 

 destructive to bird life that their suppression is important to 

 the bird protectionist. Ingersoll tells of an African snake that 



» Surface, H. A.: Zool. Bull.. Div. of Zool., Penn. Dept. of Agr., Vol. V., Nos. 4 and 5, for 

 August and Septenaber, 1908, First Report on the Economic Features of the Turtles of Pennsyl- 

 vania, p. 129. 

 -» Ibid., p. 131. 



» Ibid., p. 163. 



