NATURAL HISTORY. 



305 



few feet in the air and gyrate a few times, 

 with a caw, caw caw, are always the same 

 or different ones of the assembly. Some 

 observers say these meetings are criminal 

 courts and the malefactors are being tried; 

 but how one crow can be blacker than 

 another is not apparent. I have noticed 

 they take their departure the next day and 

 Jeave an odd number behind. Queer, if 

 a crow can't count. They certainly have 

 a language or means of communicating 

 ideas, as is apparent when a hen or a quail 

 gives a iecture to her brood before leaving 

 them to shift for themselves. Bears meet 

 in convention, but manage their affairs 

 with more decorum. I have never seen 

 more than 5 at a gathering, but my 

 brother and other hunters have seen as 

 many as 30. The bears pass around, nose 

 and smell, sit on their posterior joints, look 

 wise and say nothing the observer can 

 hear, as he must of necessity be at some 

 distance. They then separate and each 

 goes his or her way alone. It has been 

 conjectured these meetings are to arrange 

 an apportionment of the country each shall 

 inhabit. Quien sabe? 



I have noticed that bears are methodical 

 in their habits, always following their own 

 trail until their tracks are deep depressions 

 in the ground. 



On another point I seek knowledge. 

 Why do bears leave their teeth marks 

 across a tree or a sapling, as high as they 

 can reach, standing on hind legs? The 

 highest marks are always the freshest. Is 

 it the same bear that makes the higher 

 mark, to see how much he has grown, or 

 another bear who can go him that much 

 better? 



L. Allen, East Wareham. Mass. 



CAN MILK SNAKES MILK? 

 Can the milk snake milk a cow? I have 

 visited regions where this reptile abounds 

 and have been told by farmers that it will 

 IcTsten itself to the hind leg of a cow and 

 milk her. I have seen this snake around 

 dairies and have heard it will drink milk 

 from pans, but I cannot bring myself to 

 believe in its ability as a milker. 



H. L. Nelson, Washington, D. C. 



ANSWER. 



The milk snake, Coluber cximius, is ex- 

 tremely partial to milk and will -levy toll 

 in the dairy when opportunity offers. As 

 a set off against such depredation, it is an 

 excellent mouser, and if the snakes are 

 left undisturbed and the milk so protected 

 that they cannot reach it. they are useful. 

 In captivity they drink milk with avidity; 

 for the matter of that, so do other species, 

 the coral snake. Rlaps fulvius, being one. 

 Witli regard to the sacking of cows, many 

 people maintain that they do, but they are 

 casual and superficial observers and have 



been mistaken. More frequently the state- 

 ment is from hearsay, or from superstition. 

 The European hedgehog bore the odium 

 of a like accusation for centuries; even 

 now, in some out-of-the-way districts the 

 belief obtains. There is absolutely no rea- 

 son for entertaining the idea; had it been 

 so, it would long since have been settled 

 in the affirmative. It is a common species 

 and herpetology is a study nowadays. Is 

 it likely that scientists who have devoted 

 long years of study to the habits of snakes 

 would not have chronicled a solitary in- 

 stance? Snakes have peculiar traits, al- 

 lowing their young to take refuge down 

 their throats in case of alarm being among 

 the number; but that of sucking cows is 

 not recognized by those fully qualified to 

 judge. 



Percy Selous, Greenville, Mich. 



THE SISKIN IN MICHIGAN. 

 The pine siskin, Spinus pinus, is strictly 

 a winter resident in this county. It usually 

 arrives in December, and stays until its 

 young are able to fly. In midwinter, in 

 company with the red crossbill, it visits 

 the farm houses, picking up what little it 

 can find near the door. If unmolested it 

 will become so tame as to allow a person 

 to walk within 4 or 5 feet of.it. A hem- 

 lock stump in our dooryard furnished a 

 peculiar attraction for them, a flock of 8 

 siskins and 5 crossbills visiting it nearly 

 every day during the winter of 1898-9, 

 picking on its rotten surface for hours. 

 The first sign I saw of nest building was 

 April 10th, 1899, when a pair carried away 

 part of a cedar bird's nest located in a 

 maple shade tree. April 14th they left the 

 nest and began carrying hog hair from a 

 scaffold, near the barn, on which the hogs 

 had been killed. This continued for a few 

 days, when they suddenly stopped coming 

 to the farm house altogether. April 25th, 

 after a long search, I found a nest of one 

 pair, in a hemlock, 20 feet from the ground 

 and 15 feet out on a slender, swinging 

 limb. This nest contained 4 eggs, pale 

 green, lightly spotted with brown. April 

 27th I found another nest, 35 feet from 

 the ground and 12 feet out on a limb. It 

 also contained 4 eggs. As soon as the 

 young birds were full grown they quietly 

 migrated, probably Northward. Cook, in 

 his "Birds of Michigan," makes no state- 

 ment at all concerning nesting, and Coues 

 in his "Key" says nothing about the date of 

 nesting. From this it would appear that 

 little is known on this subject. 



W. H. Dunham. Kalkaska, Mich. 



WRITE YOUR CONGRESSMAN. 

 All I can do for the cause of game pro- 

 tection is to set a good example to others— 



