THE HAMILTON ASSOCIATION. 101 



The reptile that is most noticeable in its coloring and brilliancy 

 of skin adornment among the species of its kind, and most fre- 

 quently met with, is the one known as the spotted adder or milk 

 snake. The upper half of the milk snake has a series of saddle- 

 shaped, dark brown spots, the whole length of its spine, on a light 

 greenish ground, also along the sides an equal number of round or 

 roundish dark brown spots, graduating in size, like the saddle-shaped 

 ones, according to the tapering of the snake's body. A band of 

 black runs around the margin of the upper jaw, which, with the 

 sparkling and restless glare of the eyes, gives an expression of 

 peculiar malice to this much hated snake. The under parts are 

 beautifully chequered with blue and silvery white scales, and the 

 purity of coloring and contrast always makes this snake an interest- 

 ing object to observe. Although by no means scarce here in warm, 

 moist summers, they are less frequently met with than the common 

 garter snake, from which they do not differ much in point of size, 

 although the milk snakes are slightly the larger, about three feet is 

 the average of such as it has been our lot to meet with. It is 

 oviparous, and we have occasionally found their eggs deposited in 

 ground-squirrel burrows in sandy spots beneath the blackened roots 

 or stumps of the pine tree, there being twelve to fourteen eggs. 



Although there seems to be ground for supposing that some 

 snakes have a relish for milk, there seems but little reason for the 

 common traditions as to the milk snake's methods of obtaining it 

 from the cows. The milk snake delights to inhabit an old straw 

 stack near an old barn, and often deposits its eggs in such a place 

 in hot weather. And as milch cows are also fond of reposing there 

 to ruminate during summer nights, while, before arising to their feet 

 in a morning, milk drops may be seen oozing from the distended 

 udders, snakes, if in proximity, would naturally imbibe the liberated 

 and nourishing fluid, and hence the tradition. 



The milk snake also delights to haunt outside cellars and root 

 houses, and a friend of mine, the wife of a new settler in the woods, 

 upon going into her out-cellar on one occasion, was astonished to 

 see a snake raise its head and neck above the sur'face of a tin pan 

 full of new milk. Whether the warmth of the liquid had suggested 

 to the reptile the desirability of a cosmetic bath, or the nutritious 

 and palatable qualities of the fluid had been the temptation, may be 

 a subject for conjecture. 



