244 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



.Oct. 22, 1885 



what should I do with the thing now that I had it? Where 

 could I put it? My colored factotum Sam (a typical negro 

 hoy of the old time" whose mother was my faithful nurse, 

 and a better one there never was) suggested that it be hidden 

 in th<; hollow of a big sycamore tree, about half a mile from 

 home, until the next Saturday. On Saturdays I had a holi- 

 day, and so was not obliged to study. My private tutor who 

 was something of a musician was in the habit of visiting a 

 near neighbor, to whose young daughters he was imparting 

 the rudiments of a musical education, and so I usually had 

 the day to myself. 



The next holiday was a beautiful one, just such divine 

 days as sometimes" come in the late far' South autumns. 

 With a large vial filled with powder, abstracted stealthily 

 from my uncle's abundant powder flask, and a lot of shot of 

 various sizes, from No. 1 buck to No. 6, I proceeded to get 

 out the hidden gun. It had suflered no damage in its con- 

 cealment, and I loaded it as well as 1 could, remembering to 

 follow the advice I had received from its late proprietor, 

 using plentiful paper as wadding. Then Sam and 1 went 

 down toward the lake I have mentioned to shoot at some- 

 thing. A large tne had been blown down hy a summer 

 storm, and had fallen with part of its top in the water. 

 Behind this trunk I sal down, with the gun barrel resting 

 across it, and was ready to destroy anything feathered or 

 furred that came in range. We sat there, 1. .should think, an 

 hour. A flock of mallards fresh from northern prairies and 

 hikes sailed slowly up and down, and finally dropped into the 

 water about a hundred yards away, and began preening them- 

 selves after their long flight. I waited for them to swim in 

 closer to shore and give them a shot, but they unaccount- 

 ablj^ as it seemed, "declined to oblige." Finally, as I was 

 getting tired of so long a stillness, and was tbinking of 

 leaving, I heard my boy Sam say, "Jes look dar. Marse 

 Hugh!" I looked, and the siaht nearly made me speechless. 



Six deer were coming down out of the canebrake, and 

 heading directly for the place we were concealed in. At the 

 head of the column there marched a stately buck, with as 

 fine a head of horns as one could wish to see. Behind him 

 were two does and three younger deer. 1 hardly dared to 

 breathe. On they came until they were within twenty yards 

 of where we lay hidden. The buck, as became a monarch 

 and gentleman, headed his seraglio and children to the 

 water's edge, where he bent his stately head and took a long 

 draiight of the silvery water, A young doe behind him 

 nibbled daintily— with the coquetry of a grande dame— at 

 the sweet autumn grass that the water had kt.pt green. The 

 soft lustrous brown eyes of the wild things shone like those 

 of a beautiful woman. I was face to face with God's love- 

 liest children in their most charming mood. The buck 

 looked on as a patriarch might watch the sports of giddy 

 youth, while the younger deer bit at each other in simulated 

 anger or dipped their tawny nostrils and dappled faces in 

 the limpid water. All at once I saw a quick change in the 

 leader. _ He su.spected danger. The wind blew '^stronglv 

 from him to me, but with some instinctive warning he knew 

 his followers were in the way of harm. He reai-ed his 

 branched head and gave a low tremulous whistle. lu a sec- 

 ond the beautiful creatures were alive with the instinct of 

 self-preservation. But what was it? Who had seen the 

 slayer man whom they had reason to fear since Nimrod the 

 Mighty Hunter. In the intentness with which I watched 

 them I forgot that I had a gun. 



"Fo" mussy's sake, Marse Hugh, why don't yo' shoot?" I 

 heard my African lieuienant wliisper'in a voice of agony. 

 Tremulous I somehow pulled back the massive flint-bearing 

 hammer until with a loud ' 'tchick" it was at full cock. The 

 buck detected a movement. He started to ran, but in some 

 invisible way gave orders that the others should go first. 

 He would cover the retreat as became a hero and warrior 

 patriarch heading his own family. He stepped off about 

 forty yards and stopped. I tried to sight him, but my eyes 

 filled with water and the front sight looked as big as a barrel 

 in desperation I wildly pulled the trigger and the ponderous 

 hammer came down. The gun had snapped. If that buck 

 had only gone then He started at the click of the falling 



defiant brtLn't,?,'"^ ^^'^^^^ r^'-^^' if i° 



]owS tiSv iw?f''''T,^^'^'^ ^^'l^^d me,fol- 

 that ™ Si^^^- S- ""^iT- They too, wanted to see what 

 ne?ve^r%,r,w]^T ^^"^ 1° ^ .second my 



tl at^ot^rL? n ^ '^'^'"^S" ^^^^^' ^ P^^l^ed back the tumbler 

 ^ood ^m l^l^V^^^^^ the gun. Taking as 



^ThaT.L.lT^^ ^''SSer the lecond time, 



artiliiv ir hnf ^f-'' ^ «f foity heavy pieces of 



mortai? h,,? helped handle a battery of 13-inch 



roilprfwui ^T' ^ ^^^^ ^ ^-o^^-! The musket re- 

 coiled terribly, for I must have had in it five drams of nuick 

 humrng powder. The heavy cock caught rJe S tSe Tp t 



etrtti' ^T'^ backward and knocked out two of m7 

 Stlvnn tS^ ' was looking over my shoulder, di- 



S^no^-S Tf that organ-too flat for bemily 



Sll^^ nZn= ^ ^"^^"'^ of that featu/e 



lour W «ft ' always averred that it kicked hun 



mv doZts T ' " ^?\}'''^ but of that I had 



wLm no deijff ' -^^^ ""^ dared not, while Sam, 

 bulf tPr^wt 5 f restrained, bellowed hke a yearling 



PoorfelW-?hlfi" occurred to me to look for my deer. 



yen close and h^nJ' ^.^^ ^^^''S^ l^i^l^^ 



fore leos W ij'^'''''' ^e could .stand upon hi,s 



a mnSnt T i '^''''^^ leap or run again For 



th f i ^''''^'^ ^^^^ S^^^D anything in the world to have 



a wht a^^o"' T^^'' '".^ '"^^ f ^Ten so ilSe 



a. wmie ago. The wound was deeper than I thought for in 



l^ZtluZ.'fSl^r] '^''^ l^if^-.^' fined "ihh Wood 

 revu nf f^P^iin ^'f? ««f-dead. With his death came a 

 Sd ,m T -P^- 7^"" ^^"t^'^S instinct at a hunting race 

 I had kmed a deeT '''''''''' "^'^'^'^ missing teeth. 

 ThTdir w'^^'^L^'' w '• ^^'^l^S on air, and told my story, 

 a .?ea? S;'"^ "^i?^ VP «° ^he lower Lbs If 



a great oak m-t ,r„Ti ^ "-"^ lower iimos or 



said that if T I, ?^ '^^'^ ^""^ delighted at the exploit, 

 Suld say it hLtr'^J get the Multiplication Table so I 

 Sn suhed tn^^^"^^'"* by Christmas he would give me a 

 mentTl effort ^^1^1^ '"'^ '"'T^'^' ^he most terrible 

 ^.H nv.L-!5^!„ i J^^^^.P"- undergone I performed the feat. 



Table so I 

 would give me a 

 _ 1. -By the most terrible 

 and Phri"tma^ c,; undergone I performed the feat. 



but never, never have I known that su^^S-eme ecsSTcy ihit 

 comes irora achievement to such a degree as I d d when I 

 showed my gentJe mother and kind old'unc.le my firS deer 

 October 6. Mississippi LoVlands. 



address aU communications to the Forest and Stream PublLih- 

 mg Co. 



THE CONICAL WORM SNAKE. 



JJf my paper of March 5 on the "Ground or Worm 

 Snakes," allusion was made to the little "conical worm 

 snake" of India {GongylopJm conirus), at present an inmate 

 of our London Zoological Gardens. I was then anticipating 

 the brighter skies of summer to enable me to observe it 

 while feeding, Tyrrell, our head keeper at the Reptilium, 

 having reported to me its habit of constricting its prey. 

 Now we have always as.sociated the idea of constrictors— 

 those which kill their prey by con,stricting or cru.shing it in 

 their coils — with the larger serpents, boa. python, anaconda, 

 and a few others, and not at all with the small burrowing 

 snakes, many of which approach the lizard in structure". 

 This conical worm snake, therefore, was a subject of great 

 interest to me, more especially so because our principal 

 European authorities make no mention of its habits, which 

 indeed Dr. Gilnther, in his "Reptiles of British India," af- 

 firms to be but little known. 



Feeding time— once a week at the Reptilium— commences 

 with the sunset bell; consequently a bright, clear evening 

 and the willingness of Gongi/lopMs to partake of his supper 

 without loss of a moment of the precious twilight were mat- 

 ters of anxious desire. Promptly came the obhging keeper 

 to the worm snake's cage first; in it were also several other 

 small snakes, including the pretty little Ueterodon naskits 

 from Kansas, presented by Dr. 'Garman, of Cambridge, 

 Mass. I may here repeal that this conical worm snake 

 keeps itself continually hidden under the gravelly shingle 

 that covers the floor of its cage. Just its nose and the top 

 of its head, no bigger than one of the pebbles, which in color 

 it resembles, may be discerned by a practiced eye, and there 

 it remams motionless hour after hour. Unless from this 

 habit of hiding itself, I don't know why it is called a "worm 

 snake," as it is a true ophidian and in no way related to 

 the others of that name, or at all resembling a worm. 



But fast waning dayhght makes us impatient, even m 

 imagination, and we eagerly watch Tyrrell and the shingle 

 as five little white mice are dropped into the cage. Instantly 

 one was seized by a Coronella nana and coiled so swiftly that 

 the eye could not follow the movements. This little coluber, 

 then, is also a constrictor; and while noting with some relief 

 that the poor little mouse was instantaneously killed, not a 

 limb quivering to betray any suffering— hey, presto! the 

 pebbles flew, and like a jack in the box springing to light, 

 Gongylophis was on the surface with a mouse almost hidden 

 in his coils also! Thus, motionless, the snake remained for 

 nearly five minutes, when, without loosening its hold, it be- 

 gan to examine its victim. Finding the head and deliberately 

 getting that between its jaws, it proceeded to swallow the 

 mouse, which operation occupied only a few minutes. Spar- 

 ing a glance for the Coronella eana I saw that while still tightly 

 coiling the first mouse, it had caught and was eating a sec- 

 ond. Presently, in process of deglutition the coils nec<;.s;sar- 

 ily slackening, a viperine snake coolly secured the dead 

 mouse and, undisturbed, devoured the same. Mean- 

 while Gongylophis, after partaking of his mou,se, 

 worked his way stealthily under the gravel, causing 

 just so slight a commotion on the surface as to enable 

 one to trace his route to a further corner, where his head re- 

 appeared and where he remained watching mouse the fourth. 

 This little quadruped, however, espied those treacherous 

 eyes, and giving a spring to the middle of the cage, ran up 

 the stem of a shrub and settled himself among the branches, 

 calmly surveying the scene below, and apparently having 

 "quite a good time" in his security. Any of the snr.kes could 

 have easily followed him had they been so minded, but in 

 their pre-occupation mousey gained courage, and presently 

 dropping down among them again, sat on its hind legs to 

 wash its face and make itself generally comfortable. During 

 these few minutes OongylopJiis made a slow excursion round 

 the cage, thus enabling us to see his entire length and color- 

 ing as he stole up to mouse the fifth, caught and constricted 

 it for exactly four minutes. With the vanishing twilight 

 this second mouse disappeared down his captor's throat, ob- 

 scurity then terminating that evening's observations and leav- 

 ing one of the five mice still at its toilet. 



'This Indian "worm snake" is a sad glutton, sometimes 

 surfeiting himself disgracefully. On one occasion, when 

 his sole companion was a green Paperita j ust arrived, the 

 keeper, to tempt the new comer, put four mice into the cage, 

 all of which were caught and swallowed by Gongylophis be- 

 fore his comrade could seize one. The consequences of this 

 gluttony next day can be imagined; nor was the inconven- 

 ience confined to himself, because his loss of appetite for 

 some succeeding days frustrated my next week's observa- 

 tions. 



That he is a true constiictor, however, admits of no doubt; 

 and we find a reason for this in the fact that in structure he 

 is very similar to the boas, to which he is related. But while 

 his relatives who climb trees possess a long, prehensile tail, 

 his has diminished to an inch and a half, and is stout and of 

 a conical shape. Living under ground a prehensile tail 

 would be useless. It is from this peculiarly short, pointed 

 tail that Gongylophi& derives his specific name conims, and 

 not from the head, as I at first supposed, that being also of a 

 conical form and the only part of the little "worm snake" 

 that I had then seen. It is one of the family of sand snakes 

 {Eryddm), and so closely related to Eryx (hat Dumeril calls 

 it Eryx eonicus, or L'Eryx d queue Sonique. It- average 

 length is somewhat over two feet; in color it is chiefly brown, 

 prettily marked with black down its back; the ventral scales 

 are white. In some species rudimentary hind limbs are 

 slightly di.stinguishable in the form of very faint prominences 

 or stylets on each side, near the base of the tail. This is an- 

 other feature which these very small ground snakes (Eryx 

 and GongyhpMs) possess in common with the gigantic con- 

 strictors, tree boas and the anaconda (a water .snake), afford- 

 ing an interesting example of certain inherited distinctions 

 which have been preserved alike in individuals which in 

 other re.spects have widely diverged from (he ancestral type. 



Though so diilerent from Mr. Horsford's worm or ground 

 snake, which was the starting point of these investigations, 

 Gongylophis has extended our acquaintance with the eon- 

 stHcting snakes, which we find to include not a few of the 

 smaller snakes. Coronella cana, the hoary snake, from South 

 Africa, is a constrictor, coiling and retaining its prey until 

 dead; so is the lacertine snake, Gmlopeltis kteertina, but this 

 latter being the subject of recent investigations claims a few 

 words to Itself in due time. Several of the smaller snakes, 

 which, in structure, are not true constrictors, nevertheless 

 use the coils of their body to assist them in holdmg and 



managing unwieldy prey, though not to kill it. I have seen 

 a Beterodon and an English ring snake do this in dealing 

 with a bulky or troublesome frog, while the true burrowers, 

 or the lizard snakes, depend solely on the grasp of their 

 jaws, and swallow their food by a succession of quick snaps, 

 as the limbed lizards do. 



May we not hope to hear that further observations have 

 been made this summer on the habits of the American worm 

 snakes, and the result of those promised investigations of Mr. 

 Horsford's little worm snake that "ran under ground" so 

 nimbly? Catiiertne C.'Hoplky. 



HABITS OF CRAYFISH. 



OF our fresh water animal.i, none possess more interest 

 to an observer than the common crayfishes. 1 say 

 common becaxxse in most parts they are rare or not found at 

 all. They dart about in our streams and pools and play 

 around the water in a most interesting manner. I have sat 

 on the shady banks of a pretty stream near Washington for 

 hours and watched these little creatures as they busied them- 

 selves about their work, and my interest never flagged, for I 

 was always learning somethingnew about their habits. They 

 are very pugnacious and will fight, kill and eat each other if 

 they get the chance ; but their chief food consists of succulent 

 roots and waste matter in the stream. 



Whiiw the eggs are laid the female catches them as they 

 are deposited, on her swimmerets, beneath the tail, and to 

 these hairy appendages the eggs stick by a gluey secretion. 

 Upon these they arc held by the female until they are 

 hatched, and even then the newly-formed and imperfeiitly- 

 developed young, by a strange instinct are led to remain 

 attached to the female for a few days. It is interesting to 

 watch the animal in (his stage. The young graduaUy de- 

 velop the power of swimming and begin to wander a short 

 distance from their birthplace as their power increases. 

 Whenever danger is apprehended the tiny things fly pre- 

 cipitately back to their mother. Gradua'lly they venture 

 fm-ther, until at last they leave their parent for good to seek 

 their fortune in the small stream, and perhaps to be eaten by 

 the very mother who so carefully protected them in their 

 earlier days. 



The old crayfish as they swim about present a peculiar 

 appearance as, carrying their large claws clumsily in front 

 of them, they slowly walk forward, or suddenly dart back- 

 ward by quick flaps of the tail. How often have I stood on 

 the banks of the stream and watched them go through theh 

 motions. Turn over a stone and when the mud clears you 

 will see crouched away in the darkest corner one of these 

 animals looking up at you with its stalked eyes. Place your 

 hand suddenly in the water and he is gone like a fla,sh, and 

 you see him rapidly making his way down the stream. An 

 easy method of catching these creatures is to place a little 

 net just behind them, and then to frighten them. They 

 will almost invariably dart backward into the net. 



In distribution they are very curious, for in certain large 

 areas in this country they are entirely absent, and in one 

 stream they may be abundant, while in another adjacent to 

 it not one can be found. There are many different kinds, 

 all dift'ering in some minor technical point. All east of the 

 Rockies are of one genus, and west of those mountains the 

 rither genus, Adacus, is found. In New England there are 

 none, except in a river in the north of Maine, where one 

 kind is found. That such a large area should be uninhabited 

 by these animals, while the much less favorable place, the 

 Mammoth Cave, has a peculiar blind kind of its own, is 

 certainly remarkable. On the banks of the Mississippi there 

 is a burrowing species which does great damage by digging 

 holes in the levees. In Virginia there are at least three kinds, 

 the large edible river species, the burrowing kind and the 

 brook species. The latter inhabits nearly every little stream 

 flowing into the Potomac, and is almost invai-iably present 

 in the springs at the head of the stream. Eveiy Virginia 

 planter protects these little creatures when found in the 

 springs, "for they purify the water," he says, and with good 

 reason. 



There is one species which 1 have had especial opportun- 

 ity for observing and which is, without doubt, the most 

 interesting one of the whole group inhabiting the United 

 States. "This is the burrowing crayfish, technically called 

 Cambarns diogenen. It was found in a meadow near Wash- 

 ington, living in abundance in burrows in the ground at a 

 considerable distance from the stream. No one has pub- 

 lished anything upon the subject, except the naturalist 

 Girard many years ago, and my observations differ somewhat 

 from his. 



In this meadow, which in winter is covered with water, 

 the holes are found in great numbers, and each is covered 

 by a chimney or mound made of pellets of mud. At the end 

 of a burrow, which varies from six inches to three feet, 

 according to circumstances, is a bottle-shaped cavity in which 

 the crayfish lives. The bottom of the hole contains about a 

 pint of muddy water, from which the crayiish must get its 

 oxygen for breathing. The hole is sometimes not over half 

 an inch in diameter, and is often as wide as two inches, 

 varying with the size of. the inhabitant. At the bottom of 

 each burrow one adult animal is always found and never 

 more. 



For reasons which I shall not attempt to explain here, I 

 am led to believe that during the winter the burrowing 

 crayfishes retire to the water in the stream, and in the 

 spring, finding the water decreasing in volume, that ungov- 

 ernable force, called instinct, leads them to burrow in the 

 ground primarily to escape the drouth and also to raise their 

 young. The burrow- is dug perpendicularly until water is 

 reached, and as long as water is left in the hole, the animal 

 is .satisfied. But soon the increased heat of the summer 

 dries up the surfiice water, and the crayfish is obliged to 

 burrow deeper. In doing so more mud has then to be exca- 

 vated, and this is piled in the shape of a mound or chimney 

 around the mouth of the hole. How the creature rolls up 

 large pellets of mud to the surface is hard to understand. 

 But that it does push them up the smooth and regular side of 

 the burrow, is a fact clearly shown by the evidence at hand. 



What the animal hves on deep down in its burrow is 

 difficult to see. I have never seen it out in the daytime, and 

 as there is nothing in the hole to eat it must go out by night. 

 There are no side burrows and no tunnelings, and never have 

 I found two bm-rows united. The male and female are 

 separated by masses of earth, and to come into communica- 

 tion with each other they must meet outside the burrow. I 

 found large numbers of females with the young clinging to 

 their swimmerets, and the.se must all live in the almost dry 

 narrow burrow. How do they get a sufficient amount of 

 oxygen? It is an intensely interesting creature and one which 

 will bear much study. At present nothing positive is known 

 about it and the subject is open to any student of nature. 



Ralph S. Tar1{. 



