4i 6 DAN BEARD'S ANIMAL BOOK 



have often found these snakes in my cellar and the 

 flower-beds of our yard. It was not until Dit- 

 mar's book was written that people knew that 

 there were snakes living wild even in Manhattan 

 itself. The De Kay snake eats slugs. Now this 

 interests me very deeply because I have made 



SOME EXPERIMENTS WITH SLUGS 



as an article of food. I tempted a pet robin to 

 try one, but the slime from the slug entangled the 

 bill and legs of the little bird, like a strong spider 

 web, in such a manner that the bird would have 

 perished had I not personally and with some dif- 

 ficulty freed it from its bonds. I next 



GAVE A SLUG TO A PET TURTLE. 



It was a small turtle, a little smaller than the saucer 

 to an after-dinner coffee cup, but it had a voracious 

 appetite, and a firm conviction that it was able to 

 eat any live thing that wiggled. After two or 

 three bites at the slug its head was completely en- 

 tangled with the slime. The turtle made desperate 

 efforts with its front feet to free itself, the only 

 effect being that of entangling its feet in 



THE SAME STRINGY MUCOUS WEB, 



so I was compelled to take the turtle out of the 

 aquarium,, and carefully remove the slug slime. It 

 was a sadder and a wiser turtle that I returned to 



