74 NATURE'S REALM. 
A CURIOUS SNAKE, 
In the fall of 1869 I was in La Crosse, Wis., 
and having some business in La Crescent, on 
the Minnesota site of the Mississippi, I crossed 
the river in a ferry boat. There is, or was, an 
arm of the river on the Minnesota side, called 
in western parlance a ‘‘slew.” Over this there 
is a bridge; on going over it I saw a snake 
coiled on a “butt” that had been sawed off a 
tree of about two feet in diameter, and it was 
floating in the water. The snake was so dif- 
ferent from any animal of the kind I had ever 
before seen that I gazed on it for fully five min- 
utes. It was evidently asleep and within ten 
feet of me—was, in fact, directly under me as 
I leaned over the side of the bridge. The 
“slew” had no current in it, for the water 
was very low; I had, therefore, ample oppor- 
tunity to observe the snake. It was red, and 
more extraordinary still, it was thickly covered 
with hair. It resembled no snake I had ever 
seen before. It was exactly like a red cow’s 
tail. The hair on it was fully an inch long 
and as thick as that growing on a cow’s tail. 
Having no means of capturing the snake, I de- 
termined to make it show itself, and flung a 
piece of stick at it. It awoke at the splash in 
the water, uncoiled itself and dived into the 
‘‘slew.” It was certainly six feet long or more. 
Can any reader of NATURE’S REALM say if 
such a snake has ever been seen in any of our 
western rivers? I have told some dozens of 
people in La Crosse about it, among them Mr. 
Davidson, of the Clyde House, but none of 
them remembered to have ever seen such a 
‘snake. Mr. Davidson is the best known sports- 
man in La Crosse, and it is strange that he 
never should have seen any snake like it. 
T: O. Russell. 
THE SKY LARK. 
Can NATURE'S REALM or any of its readers 
inform me if any serious effort has yet been 
made by the general government, a State gov- 
ernment or a private individual, to import the 
sky lark? Judging from an article that ap- 
peared in /Vature some months ago, one 
--would think that this most noted and interest- 
ing of birds would find a genial habitat in 
many places on this continent. For my part I 
see nothing whatever to hinder the sky lark 
from living and thriving all along our Atlantic 
seaboard from New York to North Carolina. 
The sky lark is not altogether a granivorous 
bird ; it feeds principally on grubs and worms. 
It is hardy and can stand great varieties of 
temperature. It is found in parts of conti- 
nental Europe where the climate is quite as se- 
vere as on our Atlantic seaboard between the 
points mentioned. The sky lark is a bird of 
great power of flight, and were it once accli- 
mated here it would soon learn to emigrate 
from one locality to another as it does in Eu- 
rope. It is well known that these birds cross 
the sea to the British Isles in vast numbers 
every autumn from the more northerly parts 
of continental Europe, where the winters are 
much more severe than in Great Britain or Ire- 
land. 
There is at least one part of this continent 
where the sky lark would certainly live. and 
thrive if introduced, and that is on the Pacific 
coast between Vancouver's Island and latitude 
35° north. The climate of this part of the 
American continent is almost the same as that 
of western and southwestern Europe—the nat- 
ural country of the sky lark. Without govern- 
ment aid it will be, in my opinion, impossible 
to plant the sky lark in America. Vast num- 
bers of the young birds would have to be 
brought over and let loose in different locali- 
ties. There would be very little difficulty in 
procuring any number of them in almost any 
part of Europe. They are caught in nets in 
the fall of the year by hundreds of thousands and 
sold to poulterers and butchers. Heaven for- 
bid, however, that Americans should. ever -be- 
come sky lark eaters! We want the bird for 
its song and not for its flesh. 
There is no possible cause to fear that the 
sky lark would become a nuisance in this 
country if domiciled in it. It causes abso- 
lutely no damage in the countries it inhabits, 
for it is more of a grub than a grain eater. 
It is to be ardently desired that’ NATURE'S 
REALM and all publications of a kindred nature 
in this country will not cease agitating the 
subject until the general government takes 
some steps about introducing the sky lark and 
giving it a new home in America. R. 
