I04 JOFNAL AND PROCEEDINGS 



bottom of the water, and instantly stirs up the mud, roiUng the 

 water as much as possible. 



The garter snake is quite commonly captured in the summer 

 with an unsightly protuberance in some part of its body, from 

 which is extracted an undigested frog or even an unlucky toad. On 

 one occasion, a friend assures me, he liberated seventeen vivacious 

 young garter snakes that had evidently in a moment when threat- 

 ened by danger sought safety in the parental interior. The young 

 milk snakes have also been known to seek a similar place of safety. 



Ophidians are quite often found in proximity to putrefying 

 animal substance in the fields or forest, but whether in quest of the 

 carrion loving insects or beetles that are attracted to such spots, or 

 to regale on the substance itself, seems not very clear. 



Like all wild animals, snakes assume a bold and defiant attitude 

 when a seeming danger threatens the safety of their immature young. 

 On one occasion, as I was busily engaged thinning and weeding 

 field carrots which had a dense growth on top, I found myself, as I 

 was stooping to the work, suddenly confronted by a semi-erect and 

 evidently irate garter snake, with mouth open, head swaying, and 

 tongue flickering, whose privacy had evidently been trespassed upon. 

 I instinctively drew back and the snake ceased its belligerent demon- 

 strations, and was soon lost to the eye amid the rank vegetation. 

 A friend, to whom I narrated the circumstance, suggested that the 

 snake must either have been disturbed when taking care of its young 

 family, or else had been contemplating a speedy change of its scaly 

 integuments, at which times, he averred, the serpentine irritability is 

 excessive. 



Snakes quite frequently fall a prey to the falcon tribe. When 

 the latter are hard put to it to obtain a sufficient supply for their 

 clamorous young, it is not an unfrequent spectacle in summer to see 

 Falco nilvus, or hen-hawk, fly overhead with a snake in dangling 

 contortions grasped in its claws, and steering in a direct line towards 

 its hungry and screaming young ones. 



All the snake family are fond of warmth, and we have fre- 

 quently found them enjoying the artificial warmth of burning log 

 heaps in the chilly air of early morn. The largest gartersnake I 

 ever met with was found burned to death in the hot ashes resulting 

 from a heap of burnt logs. The season was the month of April, 

 and the snake seemed to have approached the genial warmth too 



