AUTUMN FLOWERS, SQUIRRELS. 259 



ture's plan in the preservation of life as well as the 

 presentation of beauty. The gentle little grass-green 

 snake {Cijclophis vernalis) glides harmlessly through 

 the iield unobserved except for the disturbance he 

 creates among the weeds and grass leaves. Why he 

 is not left alone it is hard to imderstand. No 

 creature could possibly be more harmless. The cow- 

 bird {Molothrus ater) is far more deserving of our 

 animosity, for she lays her eggs in other birds' nests, 

 and her young ones are the cause of the death of 

 many an interesting brood. If people would only 

 learn to let innocent snakes and toads live, we would 

 have our farmers complaining less of destructive in- 

 sects and worms. Poisonous snakes do not exist, so 

 far as I know, among the Wliite Mountains, and 

 during the many seasons I have spent in the Cats- 

 kills and at Lake George I have never met more 

 than two rattlesnakes. It may be well enough to 

 kill these and the treacherous copperheads, but the 

 others should be allowed to live. Fully ninety per 

 cent of the poor murdered reptiles I have seen by 

 the roadside were perfectly harmless, and doubtlessly 

 their loss was the gain of thousands of insects inju- 

 rious to the farmers' crops. 



The splendid color of the October landscape is 

 aesthetic ; that of snakes, butterflies, beetles, birds, 

 and flowers is beautiful only as far as it is brilliant, 



