THE HAMILTON ASSOCIATION. I03 



had built her nest, and that when attacked, the snake scooted along 

 the narrow board edge faster than he was able to walk. 



The caudal termination of a milk snake is a hard, horny point, 

 and it is averred that this is used as a means of defence, and that 

 when this or similarly equipped ophidians are teased with a pine 

 shingle, they will strike it with such force that the armature pierces 

 the wood and is difficult to extract. 



It is a common belief that the garter snake lays eggs, but Dr. 

 Garnier's testimony proves this to be an error, while I myself once 

 removed eleven young ones from the abdomen of a female garter 

 snake, which I was convinced had never seen the light of day, and I 

 felt sure that the garter snake was occasionally viviparous at any rate. 



The garter snakes seem gregarious when hybernating, and I 

 have found them occasionally ten or twelve together in underground 

 holes near a morass, where they would surely be frozen and also 

 surrounded with ice in wintertime. Like the hybernating quadru- 

 peds, the ophidians are quick to perceive the genial influence of 

 Spring, and on warm, sunny days in early April, and even sooner, 

 crawl out of their winter retreats to lay coiled in a southern exposure 

 and bask in the solar rays, even when the remains of deep snow- 

 drifts exist only a few feet distant. 



The garter snakes, like the milk snakes and others, are particu- 

 larly gregarious in the earlier part of their life. On one occasion I 

 found, on removing a pile of boards, thirteen half grown garter 

 snakes, in a space not exceeding two feet square, luxuriating in the 

 warmth in various curves and bendings of their elongated bodies, 

 with the seemmg sociability of a Quaker meeting. They had 

 evidently assembled from a piece of fallen timber land adjoining. 



I have occasionally witnessed the exciting chase of a garter 

 snake in pursuit of a frog, the latter making its best jumps, and the 

 snake, with elevated head and glittering eyes, watching for the 

 opportune moment to strike in decisively. Sometimes the frog, as if 

 paralyzed, rests for a moment amid a tuft of weeds, with flanks 

 panting in abject fear, the snake gazing at the exact spot intently, 

 and on the slightest movement of its victim, making the deadly 

 spring, which closes the batrachian's career. AVhen the chase is 

 downhill, the frog sometimes escapes, and if a stream or a ditch or 

 puddle be near, directs its course thitherwards, dives at once to the 



