NATURAL HISTORY. 



219 



ing sand. Being directly above them we 

 could see them walk, if you can so call it. 

 The bivalves moved ard in doing so in- 

 creased the area of the circles and roiled 

 the water slightly. They seemed to raise 

 themselves on their hinges and then fall; 

 the gain being perceptible each time. We 

 watched them cover considerable ground, 

 for a clam, and left them circuitously wend- 

 ing or plowing their way to deep water. 

 It was a strange sight to us, and we realized 

 that even a clam manages to " get there 

 just the same." 



What fresh water clams were made for 

 no one ever guessed until recently. Now 

 a use has been found for them. Until a 

 short time ago all our pearl shirt buttons 

 came from abroad. A boatman on the Mis- 

 sissippi, at Muscatine, Iowa, in clearing out 

 his boat threw some clam shells on the 

 beach. A passerby picked some up, and 

 asked the boatman many questions con- 

 cerning them. Soon after a building was 

 rented in Muscatine, and fitted with ma- 

 chinery. Then clam shells were dug from 

 the river bed and made into buttons that 

 equalled the imported article, yet were sold 

 for much less money. For a long time the 

 factory was a terra incognita to any save 

 its employees, but it was too good a thing 

 to be kept secret. To-day nearly 30 fac- 

 tories are making pearl buttons from Mis- 

 sissippi river clams. The river bed, it is 

 claimed, is paved clear through to China 

 with clams and the supply is reckoned in- 

 exhaustible. 



Charles Cristodoro, St. Paul, Minn. 



GOOD WORK BY BOSTON POLICE. 



Maiden, Mass. 



Editor Recreation: Two Italians were 

 caught on October 23d, snaring insectivo- 

 rous birds in the Middlesex Falls reserva- 

 tion, Medford, Mass. Their trial was con- 

 ducted by Judge Pettingill, who is, by the 

 way, unreservedly a friend of the birds. I 

 was asked to be present to assist in indenti- 

 fying the captured birds. 



The Italians used birdlime in securing 

 their feathered booty. Small sticks, sharp- 

 ened at one end to admit of being stuck 

 lightly into a branch or tree trunk, were 

 smeared with the sticky substance. Two 

 decoy birds, a male and a female purple 

 finch, confined in small cages and hidden 

 beneath the trees in which the sticks were 

 placed, were used to call the wild birds to 

 the snare. When the latter came in an- 

 swer to the calls of the decoys, those alight- 

 ing on the smeared sticks would be held. 

 Their struggles for freedom would serve 

 only to detach the sticks from the tree, and 

 the birds would fall to the ground; there 

 becoming still more befouled and rendered 

 helpless by the glue-like stuff. 



The lawbreakers have heretofore escaped 

 the vigilance of Park Superintendent Price 

 and his officers, because of the method em- 



ployed to conceal the decoys, and by the 

 fact that the receiving basket was used os- 

 tensibly for gathering mushrooms. The 

 captured birds were hidden under a cover 

 of mushrooms and thus carried out of the 

 reservation. For the offense of snaring 

 birds each Italian was fined $20, and in ad- 

 dition $10 apiece for each bird in their pos- 

 session. One man had 7 blue birds and 

 one goldfinch; the other, 4 blue birds. This 

 is the second conviction obtained by Mr. 

 Price within a week, and if the practice is 

 not stopped more will surely follow. 



Ralph H. Hohnan. 



If all municipal and state officers would 

 cinch bird destroyers in this summary fash- 

 ion Italians would soon become familiar 

 with our laws. 



THE SPREADING ADDER. 



Is the spreading-adder a poisonous 

 snake? 



Do you know of an authentic case where 

 the bite of this snake has proven fatal to 

 man or beast? F. S. 



ANSWER. 



i. The spreading adder or blow snake, 

 Heterodon platyrhinus, is perfectly harm- 

 less. It has neither poison fangs nor glands 

 and what tiny teeth it does possess are only 

 for use in holding its prey. 



2. I do not. I have heard numerous silly 

 tales as to the breath of the spreading adder 

 being dangerous. As a matter of fact I 

 have for years kept and experimented with 

 these snakes; more than anything else to 

 disprove this idea. I have never experi- 

 enced any inconvenience when they have 

 " blown " in my face, as has frequently hap- 

 pened. Of course there may be conditions 

 of health when even the scratch of a pin or 

 any trivial occurrence may result fatally; 

 but under natural conditions the snake in 

 question is perfectly harmless. As fright 

 has undoubtedly much to do at times with 

 after results, and the head of a snake is of- 

 ten so smashed as to be of little use, other 

 than to an expert, in deciding whether the 

 creature were venomous .or not, a safe plan 

 is to examine the tail. In the venomous 

 snakes the subcaudal scales below the vent 

 are similar to those of the abdomen for 

 some distance toward the tail tip. That is 

 to say: they are in one piece. In the harm- 

 less snakes the subcaudal scales are divided 

 the whole way from vent to end of scaling. 

 Percy Selous. 



THE LAST OF THE BUFFALO. 



Denver, Col. 

 Editor Recreation: Yours inquiring 

 about the reported seeing of a herd of buf- 

 falo in Northwestern Colorado, was re- 

 ceived. Have not replied sooner because I 

 have been unable to verify or disprove the 

 report. Mr. W. N. Byers, an old and 

 prominent resident of Colorado, is of opin- 



