272 Modern Fishculture in Fresh and Salt Water. 



snakes than to have about half a dozen names to cover 

 them all, and few men see more snakes than the men who 

 fish and shoot, yet Jordan ("Manual of the Vertebrates") 

 gives us twenty-four genera and fifty-three species in the 

 northern United States. Of these there are four which 

 haunt marshy places and feed mainly on fish and frogs, 

 although none of them would neglect a bird if it 

 offered, whether the bird was nesting on the ground or 

 feeding. And the other species may also take fish, for 

 all I know, while it is sure that none of them would 

 decline a frog. 



These four piscivorous serpents have come fre- 

 quently under my notice at times when I have been 

 fishing alone from a boat or a log as a "contemplative 

 angler." That is the way to see not only snakes, but 

 other life, and I have fished with the four fish eaters 

 and have seen them fish. I do not kill all snakes; in 

 fact, I love to pet the "puff-adder," or "hog-nosed 

 viper," for it is kind and likes petting ; it is not poison- 

 ous, as the majority say it is, but it flattens its head and 

 threatens, then I pick it up and we are friends. But 

 the "four," the "big four," and we might add, "the 

 dirty four," I kill them on sight. Two of them are as 

 poisonous as the rattlesnake, and the others are vile 

 beasts. 



The common water snake of the North {Tropidonotus 

 sipedon) grows to a length of four feet. It is of a dirty 

 brown color, with darker squares. It ranges from 

 Maine to Texas, and is found along the streams, a 

 cross, disagreeable reptile. From 1868 to 1876 I had 

 trout ponds at Honeoye Falls, Monroe county, N. Y., 

 and this snake was a pest. The soil was a stiff clay, and 

 a crawfish hole would never cave in, but»made a good 

 place for Tropidonotus sipedon to hide in. On approach- 



