THE PARTRIDGE. 73 



he even held on to his affrighted but nevertheless courageous vic- 

 tim after we had broken his back with a blow from a large stick. 

 On searching around in the grass, we discovered two very young 

 partridges, somewhat mutilated, and nearly dead ; both of which, 

 no doubt, had been seized by his snakeship as a dainty meal, which 

 he was not, however, permitted to enjoy, owing to the bold attack 

 of the parent bird. 



Such encounters between birds and serpents, we are convinced, 

 are not uncommon, but of daily occurrence, as few of us at all 

 familiar with country life but have witnessed like incidents in our 

 rambles over the fields. We also believe that similar conflicts be- 

 tween the parent birds and these ruthless desecrators of their nests 

 have given rise to the popular fallacy that snakes possess the 

 power of charming birds, or, in other words, transfixing or draw- 

 ing them within their reach by the use of certain mesmeric manipu- 

 lations of their tongue and eyes. We give no credit whatever to 

 this boasted power of fascination on the part of snakes, but regard 

 it as one of those vulgar errors which spring up in the minds of the 

 ignorant, from their inability to explain or investigate many of the 

 everyday phenomena of nature. 



Dr. S. Oilman, the author of a very interesting article on the 

 Venom of Serpents, published in the St. Louis Medical Journal, is 

 a firm believer in the occult power possessed by serpents of fasci- 

 nating small animals, and hints at the probability of the king-snake 

 exercising some power besides mere physical force by which he 

 overcomes, even when fangleBi, the most venomous of his fellow- 

 reptiles. 



Dr. Gilman states that he succeeded in making seven venomous 

 serpents fraternize and dwell amicably in one den. A beautiful 

 pair of long-bodied king-snakes, known to be fangless, and conse- 

 quently without venom, were duly installed as members of the 

 family. The older members manifested some uneasiness, but made 

 no attempt to destroy the intruders ; and the next morning four 

 of the venomous serpents were found dead, and a fifth was gasping 

 in the suffocating coils of the king-snakes. The two others re- 



