MISCELLANEOUS ANIMALS 413 



helped over her " last nature fear." Was not the momentary effort 

 well worth the while? 



This study is the more to be recommended because so 

 little is known about the food and habits of even our com- 

 monest species. Any child who tames a snake and finds 

 out what it eats is quite likely to discover facts that may 

 extend the range of knowledge. This in itself is a keen 

 incentive. Are they valuable or harmful animals .■" We 

 cannot tell until we learn their foods, and this, according 

 to the Washington authorities, " is not known for a single 

 species of North American snake." 



We know, in general, that all snakes feed upon living animals, 

 which they swallow whole, and very often alive. Garter snakes feed 

 largely on toads and frogs ; water snakes are known to destroy 

 great numbers of fishes ; and the black snake has the well-earned 

 reputation of killing birds and robbing their nests. Whether they 

 do enough good to offset this harm, or whether they do any good 

 at all, remains to be discovered by patient observation and study. 

 As far as the evidence goes at present, however, it seems that the 

 fewer we have the better. 



No such harmful traits can be attributed to our green, or grass, 

 snake or to the little brown snakes, since they probably feed exclu- 

 sively upon worms and insects. As they are gentle and harmless, 

 never attempting to bite or to defend themselves, they are the best 

 forms with which to begin acquaintance. They may be readily found 

 under flat stones. In June or July they deposit their eggs under the 

 stones where they live. The eggs are white, irregularly oblong, few 

 in number, and about the size of sparrows' eggs; the shells are thin 

 and papery, and a little later, when we hold them up to the light, we 

 may see the young snakes coiled up inside. 



Fishes. — The original plan of this book included a 

 chapter on the common fresh-water food and game fishes. 

 As it is, a few of the more important are distributed 



