82 Dwellers in the Dust [FOURTH WEEK 



observations to birds and mammals alone, but including 

 members of the two equally distinctive classes of animals 

 mentioned above. (See Appendix.) The batrachians, in 

 the northeastern part of our country, include the sala- 

 manders and newts, the frogs and toads, while as reptiles 

 we number lizards, turtles, and snakes. 



Lizards are creatures of the tropics and only two small 

 species are found in our vicinity, and these occur but 

 rarely. Snakes, however, are more abundant, and, be- 

 sides the rare poisonous copperhead and rattlesnake, careful 

 search will reveal a dozen harmless species, the commonest, 

 of course, being the garter snake and its near relative the 

 ribbon snake. 



About this time of the year snakes begin to feel the 

 thawing effect of the sun's rays and to stir in their long 

 winter hibernation. Sometimes we will come upon a ball 

 of six or eight intertwined snakes, which, if they are still 

 frozen up, will lie motionless upon the ground. But when 

 spring finally unclasps the seal which has been put upon 

 tree and ground, these reptiles stretch themselves full 

 length upon some exposed stone, where they lie basking 

 in the sun. 



The process of shedding the skin soon begins; getting 

 clear of the head part, eye-scales and all, the serpent slowly 

 wriggles its way forward, escaping from the old skin as a 

 finger is drawn from a glove. At last it crawls away, 

 bright and shining in its new scaly coat, leaving behind 

 it a spectral likeness of itself, which slowly sinks and 

 disintegrates amid the dead leaves and moss, or, later in 

 the year, it may perhaps be discovered by some crested 



