﻿FIELD AND FOREST. I 23 



were keeping the same company. Thus had at least seven wholly 

 distinct species of birds belonging to widely separate families and or- 

 ders huddled together in one spot while the rest of the woods presented 

 the utmost stillness and lifelessness. — Lester F. Ward. 

 Nove?nber, 13, 78/6. 



A "Stand-off" between Snake and Frog.— The article in 

 your last issue, entitled "Unusual Accidents to Birds," in which the 

 fact of a stout beetle perforating the oesophagus and skin of the neck 

 of a night-hawk is noted, reminds me of an equally curious circum- 

 stance of a similar kind. Many years ago, I caught a snake {Eutcenia 

 sirta/is) which had partly swallowed a frog hind end foremost. The 

 head and shoulders of the frog were still sticking out of the snake's 

 mouth; and the frog with its vigorous hind legs had scratched and 

 kicked through each side of the snake's gullet and skin of the neck. 

 A curious fix for both animals! The snake could neither finish swal- 

 lowing the frog , nor let him go; the frog, having freed its hind legs, 

 had nothing left to kick against, and was equally helpless, with its 

 hind legs sprawling from each side of the snake's neck. The snake 

 was too large for the frog to hop away with, and the frog had fatally 

 injured the snake. They were the most woe-begone couple lever saw; 

 each and "caught a tartar," and neither could get rid of the other. 

 I bottled the precious pair, and kept them for some time in alcohol as 

 the chief-treasures of my boyish museum. — Elliott Coues. 



GLEANINGS IN FOREIGN FIELDS. 



Caterpillars. — If the experiment related below has never been 

 made before, it appears to me deserving of notice in reference to 

 instict and evolution. The successful result of the experiment in a 

 single case last year led me to repeat it on a somewhat larger scale 

 this autumn. On September 25 I placed a number of the caterpillars 

 of Pieris brassicce in boxes, and fed them with cabbage till they began 

 to spin up. As soon as they had attached themselves by the tail 

 and spun the suspensory girdle, and therefore before the exclusion of 

 the chrysalis, I cut the girdle and caused them to hang vertically by 

 the tail in the manner of the Suspendi. More than half of the cater- 

 pillars had been ichneumonized, and some accidents to the others 



