28 WAKE-ROBIN 
about with his elastic mouth; his head flattened, 
his neck writhed and swelled, and two or three un- 
dulatory movements of his glistening body finished 
the work. Then he cautiously raised himself up, 
his tongue flaming from his mouth the while, curved 
over the nest, and, with wavy, subtle motions, ex- 
plored the interior. JI can conceive of nothing 
more overpoweringly terrible to an unsuspecting 
family of birds than the sudden appearance above 
their domicile of the head and neck of this arch- 
enemy. It is enough to petrify the blood in their 
veins. Not finding the object of his search, he 
came streaming down from the nest to a lower limb, 
and commenced extending his researches in other 
directions, sliding stealthily through the branches, 
bent on capturing one of the parent birds. That a 
legless, wingless creature should move with such 
ease and rapidity where only birds and squirrels 
are considered at home, lifting himself up, letting 
himself down, running out on the yielding boughs, 
and traversing with marvelous celerity the whole 
length and breadth of the thicket, was truly surpris- 
ing. One thinks of the great myth of the Tempter 
and the “cause of all our woe,” and wonders if the 
Arch One is not now playing off some of his pranks 
before him. Whether we call it snake or devil 
matters little. I could but admire his terrible 
beauty, however; his black, shining folds, his easy, 
gliding movement, head erect, eyes glistening, 
tongue playing like subtle flame, and the invisible 
means of his almost winged locomotion. 
