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468 ENTOMOLOGICAL NEWS. [Dec., ’08 
widespread, was the fable of the “Hoss Hair Snake.” We 
often came upon the snakes, as they were called, in little 
puddles of water left by the rain or in watering troughs and 
sometimes in spring houses. We were told that they were 
originally hairs from the mane or tail of the horse, and some 
persons declared that these wriggling creatures were also pro- 
duced from human hair. The bite of the hair snake was said 
to be very dangerous to man and was likely to cause the loss 
of the member bitten. One species of hair worm which is 
white in color, and is sometimes found in cabbage heads is 
reputed by the country people to be very poisonous. Prof. 
Surface has been called upon a number of times to refute 
this fallacy which seems to be a common one in some parts 
of Pennsylvania. An excellent article on this species is Mr. 
F. H. Chittenden’s treatise published as Circular No. 2, of 
the U. S. Bureau of Entomology. I shall not forget my first 
attempt to rear a hair snake. Taking a long horse hair. I placed 
it in a pail of spring water and set the same in the sun as 
per directions, where it was to remain for seven days, no 
more, no less; visiting it daily, my hopes gradually sank until 
the seventh day, when I took it out, examined it, and while 
limp and wet, never a wriggle or squirm could I get it to make, 
it was still a horse hair and nothing more. 
When I related my experience to the initiated, the oracle 
informed me that “O’ course ye can’s make no ‘hoss’ hair 
snake out of a hair that hain’t got no roots on it; what ye 
wanter do is to pull one out by the roots and put it in the 
water right off, then ye’ll git a hoss hair snake sure.” Alas 
for the credulity and the credibility of man! I was again 
doomed to disappointment, for on the sixth day there was no 
change in the hair and on the morning of the seventh day 
when I looked, behold some thirsty creature had drunk three- 
fourths of the water including the hair. And it was some years 
later that I first read of the natural history of the hair worm 
or Gordius. 
Dr. Jos. Leidy of Philadelphia, published in the Entomolo- 
gist and Botanist, 1870, Vol. III, No. 7, a partial life history 
