AMERICAN ORNITHOLOGY. 249 



It cannot be estimated how many eggs are laid to give us a flock of 

 one hundred of these cheery little friends that stay with us through the 

 year. And when the Kansas blizzard comes where are they? As the 

 sky begins to show signs of a storm they are more restless as if search- 

 ing for a good location where the snow cannot cover all the weeds that 

 furnish them with food. Snow storms often begin in the forenoon and 

 by night the ground is well covered and the wind begins to drift it in 

 long ridges. By morning a foot of snow has fallen, the storm has 

 passed and the sun is dazzling bright reflected from the clean white 

 snow. 



But here are the larks, called snowbirds, busy at some weed that 

 still has its top above the drifts. Did the birds keep moving all night 

 to keep on top, or let it drift over them and burrow out in the morning? 



I consider snakes of all kinds the worst and most common of all 

 enemies to birds, either song or game birds. They also kill many- 

 toads that catch the nocturnal worms and bugs, such as the cutworms- 

 and June beetles, that birds do not get. The snake is generally cred- 

 ited with destroying many mice and gophers, but of the large numbers 

 that I have killed and opened only in very rare instances have I found 

 anything but birds eggs, toads and young rabbits or young birds. I 

 once found a bull snake that had gone after a gopher and seemed to 

 have found it, for he could not get out of the hole again farther than 

 where the gopher was in his stomach. The sun soon put him out of 

 his misery, as snakes cannot stand direct sun heat as is often supposed. 

 The dust around the hole showed how the snake had worked to free 

 himself. When a bull snake of three or four feet in length finds the 

 nest of a quail or prairie chicken every q^^ is sure to go down his cold 

 disgusting throat. The blue-racer, the harmless (?) garter snake are 

 all just as fond of eggnog without the nog as the bull snake. 



One nest of a game bird is worth more than all the mice any lazy 

 sneaking reptile could get up the energy to catch during his life 

 time. 



Often I have found snakes quite a distance up in the trees after eggs. 

 It is a mystery to me how they can locate a nest, and find the right tree 

 to climb. I pulled a large bull snake out of a Yellow Hammer's hole, 

 that had swallowed several great squabs or young ones while the old 

 birds were making a good fight for them. a. k. BovLts.Saiina, Kan. 



