May 26, 1800.] 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



496 



and Rowland, to make a shorter course, rushed their horses 

 over a ditch, cleared a high fence hy splendid jumping and 

 landed knee deep iu a q uagmire, with Crosby thrown finely 

 but unhurt, and the others with demoralized seats and fig- 

 ures. The fox took advantage of this divertisement, and 

 took to earth with the leading hound snapping after his 

 brush and Wm. Pinkerton almost oa top of him. The 

 hunters gathered around the opening, the entire pack panted, 

 sniffed and rested upon the smoother knolls, the riders 

 wiped their moist brows, relaxed their muscles and dis- 

 cussed the points of the huat, the hunters and the hounds, 

 and indulged in refreshments and self-gratulation. They 

 were unwilling to lose the day and the sport, and took a 

 cross country ride for Sill's Wood* in Easttown, where Wm. 

 Pinkertown relieved his brother in charge of the hounds, 

 and casting off into the forest a fine dog fox was soon 

 started by the pack in full view of the party, and the tune 

 and cry, the merry music, the steady patter of the hoofs and 

 the crash of broken bushes and obstructing limbs began 

 again, and the hunt was on gloriously. 



The hounds Myrtle, Stranger, Brave and Queen led the 

 pack in a furious race not 50yds. in the rear of the quarry, 

 and the hunters were fast after them, when rain fell for a 

 few minutes, then ceased, leaving the ground in fine condi- 

 tion for scent to carry the trail. During the first hour the 

 fox, who was evidently as wise as they make them, made 

 short circles over the hills of Willistown, bringing himself 

 and the bunched and closely pursuing hounds several times 

 into full view of the riders. He doubled upon his tracks, 

 made sharp turns, tried to change off with a fresh and more 

 fortunate fellow, and essayed all the tricks of a well-bred 

 reynard to escape his indefatigable enemies; but it was no 

 use, they stuck to the trail and steadily gained upon him- 



SOUTH AFRICAN REPTILES AT HOME, 



III. — SOME OF THE SNAKES. 



Regarding the Ophidia. also, one is surprised to find 

 some of our pet theories entirely overthrown. Ic would be 

 well could all those who undertake to write natural 

 history first live all over the world, so to speak, in order 

 that they might study each creature of their special 

 hobby on its native soil. Then they might know wbat is 

 true and what is false in the many bygone writers who 

 are so freely quoted- But, alas! most of our scientific 

 biologists who Unow best about comparative anatomy, 

 teeth, claws, appendages, external and internal develop- 

 ment — all of which they can learn from dead specimens, 

 have least time and opportunity for out-of-doors studies, 

 and so errors are copied from book to book; contributors 

 to encyclopedias and natural histories repeat them, and 

 text books adopt them again and again. How few, com- 

 paratively, of the innumerable authors of "natural his- 

 tory" have been able to combine their own observations 

 of nature with their scientific knowledge. 



For a number of years Dr. Andrew Smith's "Zoology 

 of South Africa" stood alone, and as yet there is no work 

 to replace it though it dates as far back as 1840. Only by 

 very slow degrees is zoological science advancing in the 



distant. It is a very small point of land but is extremely 

 rich in its fauna and flora. Mr, Fisk tells me there are 

 at least fourteen different kinds of snakes on that 

 restricted area and among them some of the deadliest 

 vipers. This by the way. 



To return to the egg eater. Mr. Fisk has watched its 

 mode of proceeding and informs me that it ejects the 

 shells of a hen's egg which has been crushed in a sin- 

 gular and, as one might suppose, a very methodical 

 manner, one longitudinal half being pressed into the 

 concave other half, so that when ejected the two halves 

 lie closely packed together, the inner and convex half 

 cracked all over and looking finely reticulated, the outer 

 or concave half being comparatively entire. In its 

 general aspect the Deirodon resembles a viper and in its 

 manners it simulates a viper, striking at the aggressor 

 with its head, as if it could bite. This trick Mr. Fisk 

 believes to be protective, as it strikes at the birds in the 

 same way, evidently to alarm and drive them away so 

 that it may get at the neats. When Mr. Fisk put out hi? 

 hand it dashed at it in the same fashion, but perhap3 its 

 vision is as defective as its teeth, for it strikes this way 

 and that, failing to hit the hand until after many 

 attempts and then with closed mouth. On the whole, 

 this Deirodon which we have always thought so harmless 

 and interesting is an aggressive and combative little 

 snake, and not at all what we have supposed it to 

 be. 



But before leaving it one must endeavor to ascertain 



SKETCH OF THE BACHIODON OR DEIRODON SO ABE B OF SOUTH AFRICA. 



Caught with a hen's egg- in its mouth which is stretched to its utmost tension. Drawn by A. H. Baldwin, from a sketch by Catherine C Hopley. Prom the preserved specimen in 

 the South African Museum, Cape Town. Uxact size. The little snake must have esserted its tongue before grasping the eg«, as the sheath must have bwi too much compressed to 

 permit of the escape of the tongue with the egg as now seeu. Usual length of the snake about 2ft. 



Then he decided to try strange ground, and left his familiar 

 haunts in Willistown hills for Kithcart's Rocks, then to 

 Paoli Monument grounds, through Calvert's copses, toward 

 Bryn Mawr, down Darby Creek and across it into Rad- 

 nor through the well-tilled beautiful farms belonging 

 to members of the Radnor Hunt, on and across 

 Darby Creek again, by jumping upon a log oft. from 

 the ground, where the hounds gathered confused and 

 baffled, and were at fault for the first time. The 

 riders gathered to help them, and circling around and 

 across, soon found the trail and followed the hounds at a 

 rattling pace through the Newtown Barrens and into Hobb's 

 Hollow, where the fox turned and ran toward Crum Creek, 

 crossed the West Chester Road, between Castle Rock and 

 Kirk's, and through Brook's Woods back to the starting 

 point at Sill's Woods. The fox was running very fast, the 

 hounds had settled well upon his trail, and as they came into 

 full view of the riders, Kelly upon his fiery bay was riding 

 ahead expecting every jump to see the fox caught and killed, 

 when he ran at a thorn hedge. The excited and flyiner animal, 

 somewhat dazed by the sudden obstacle, instead of jumping 

 ran through the hedge and tore his rider off, but fortunately 

 he escaped with torn clothes and cuticle. Sam Pinkerton 

 dashed past, and in the excitement went over a bridge with 

 its every alternate board removed, upon a dead run. Haw- 

 kins cleared a four rail fence magnificently, but his horse 

 landed in a ditch and threw his rider into the water, from 

 which he sputtered and floundered upon dry land with no 

 injury beyond the ducking. The other riders had a clear 

 field and came up in good shape and had a hearty laugh at 

 the mishaps of their companions. 



But where was the fox all this time? It seemed impossi- 

 ble for him to escape, but the cunning fellow had plunged 

 into a dense thicket with the hounds close behind. It was 

 getting dark, the fox was tired and it was expected he 

 would be soon brought to earth, but not so was it ordered. 

 His mate heard the hounds, posted herself upon a hill over- 

 looking the scene, watched her chance, ran in before the 

 hotiuds when they were near, led the pack from the old trail 

 upon her fresher one, and putting fresh legs and wind 

 against the tired legs and hanging tongues of the dogs, 

 started up a fresh hunt for which the hunters had neither 

 time nor stomachs. It was now too dark to ride without 

 danger, the hounds were called off and only two found miss- 

 ing; the horses were very tired and so were their riders, 

 after being in the saddle about twelve hours and riding 

 more than forty miles. It was ten miles to town, therefore 

 it was decided to carry their appetites to the bountiful re- 

 pasts awaiting the members at home. Two and three 

 abreast the hunters rode easily home, exchanging stories of 

 wild bunts, hairbreadth escapes, and captures of brushes by 

 the dozen, and all agreed on separating that this, the Ran- 

 ehito hunt, was the best in the country, and that day's 

 hunting simply perfect. Dr. W. H. Winslow. 



Pittsburgh, Pa. 



Mr. Yochem and several ladies were in the woods adjacent 

 to the city, gathering wild flowers, when of the ladies be- 

 came frightened at a small snake. Mr. Yochem procured a 

 club and struck the reptile, and was surprised to hear the 

 blow accompanied by a metallic sound, and the snake ap- 

 peared to pay no attention to the club with which he was 

 belabored. Finally a well-directed blow crushed its head. 

 It was then discovered that two-thirds of the snake's length 

 was incased in a section of gas-pipe one inch in diameter. 

 The snake was 2ft. lOin. in length and had evidently crawled 

 into the pipe when it was quite small and failed to extri- 

 cate itself.— Pittsh urgh Dispatch. 



Map of the United States. 



A large, handsome map of the United States, mounted and suit- 

 able for officeior home use, is issued by the Burlington Route. 

 Copies will be mailed to any address on receipt of twelve cents in 

 postage by P. 8. Eustis. General Pass. Agent, C, B. & Q. R. R., 

 Chicago, III.— Adv. 



colony, and this mainly through the South Africa Philo- 

 sophical Society, with its distinguished Secretary, Roland 

 Trimen, Esq., F. R. S., F. L. S., etc. etc., and two or three 

 Natural History Societies, each of which can boast three 

 or four enthusiastic students and observers of nature 

 among their members. It is to some of these that I am 

 indebted for the facts which after this preamble I will 

 proceed to describe. 



I think I have already in these columns referred to the 

 Deirodon or neck-toothed tree snake of South Africa. If 

 not, it is fully described in my work on snakes and un- 

 der different headings. Its peculiarity lies in the fact of 

 its having no teeth, or only a few inconspicuous teeth, 

 but some remarkable projections or processes instead, on 

 the first few joints of the spine. These penetrate into the 

 throat and are tipped with enamel (dentine) and answer 

 ail the requirements of the little tree snake, whose food 

 is exclusively birds' eggs, and the enameled processes 

 crush the shells. Owen has described the snake, both in 

 his "Odontography" and in his "Anatomy of the Verte- 

 brates," quoting Dr. Andrew Smith, and believing, as the 

 present writer and others have done, that the snake lived 

 exclusively in trees. "Its business," says the learned 

 Owen, "is to restrain the undue increase of small birds 

 by devouring their eggs," and he proceeds to describe the 

 gular teeth in technical language. The snake was first 

 named Anodon (toothless) by Smith, and afterward 

 Oligodon (few teeth), and was placed in the family OH- 

 gontida, which includes other few-toothed snakes whose 

 food is soft, though not exclusively eggs. Examined by 

 various naturalists it has been subsequently named 

 Rachiodon (spine-toothed), Coluber seaber because it has 

 rough, carinated scales, and for the same reason Dasy- 

 peltis inornatus by Wagler, and finally Deirodon scaber 

 (neck-toothed) by Owen, to denote the position of those 

 peculiar teeth which crush the shell when the contents 

 cannot escape from the mouth. The egg-eating tree 

 snake is the English name by which the Deirodon has 

 been generally known, but strange to tell when I come to 

 inquire about it, hoping to see it alive, my scientific 

 friends here, including the Rev. G. R. Fisk, Mr. Leslie, 

 F. Z, S., and others, express surprise to hear me speak 

 of it as a "tree snake," and declare it is a robber of hen's 

 nests also. In confirmation of this Mr. Trimen, the 

 curator of the South African museum, and himself an 

 accomplished zoologist, shows me a bottled specimen of 

 this very snake which died (or was killed) with a hen's 

 egg in its mouth. Mr. Trimen kindly took the egg from 

 the glass jar to enable me the better to examine it, and 

 he also has permitted me to make a drawing of it, which 

 I herewith present to the reader. It is from careful 

 measurement, and on comparing the half swallowed egg 

 with another hen's egg I find that it is of average size, 

 showing that the snake did not even hesitate, or wait to 

 seek a smaller egg. 



Mr. Trimen was not certain that the snake had been 

 killed or how it died. I shall endeavor to obtain fur- 

 ther information about this. The snake was seen with 

 the egg in its mouth, head erect and gliding away to 

 escape when disturbed. Mr. Fisk, of Cape Town, has 

 seen the snake on the Flats, where a number of birds 

 build their nests on the ground. The "Flats" are a long 

 strip of alluvial land skirting the mountains along the 

 Cape Peninsula, or rather behind the many villages 

 which skirt the mountains and lie between them and 

 the shore; the Cape Peninsula being the point of land 

 extending southward from Cape Town to the Cape of 

 Good Hope, its most southern point, about forty miles 



two things. First, at what season does it descend to the 

 ground? Is it when the small birds have ceased to lay 

 eggs, and the hybernating season not being near it has to 

 obtain such other food as it may? Or, with the increas- 

 ing population of the last fifty years and the havoc made 

 upon small birds in South Africa as elsewhere, has it 

 been driven to attempt an inconviently large egg in lieu 

 of its natural food, and in the struggle for existence 

 learned to manage and overcome the attendant difficulty? 

 This becomes an interesting question which one must en- 

 deavor to solve. 



I have been inviting information on the cow-milking 

 and the progeny-swallowing snakes; but with no very 

 conclusive results, though both habits are widely cred- 

 ited by the ignorant here. Another myth, long since 

 extant, is that certain snakes spit venom into the eye of 

 the intruder. This subject has been already discussed; 

 and my arguments were intended to show that when a 

 venomous snake, with a fully charged gland, strikes with 

 the intention of biting and fails, the escaping venom often 

 flieslto a distance of several feet, and that accidentally, but 

 not intentionally, it may enter a person's eye, with pain- 

 ful if not always fatal results. I find here that some of 

 the najas either succeed in a remarkable way in causing 

 their ejected venom to go into a person's eye, or they in- 

 tentionally aim at the eye and often with too grave a 

 result. 



The other day Dr. Schonland, curator of the museum 

 at Grahamstown, was showing me one of the najas, com- 

 monly known as ringhals, and he cautioned me "Do not 

 go too close to the cage, it may spit at your eye," He 

 then assured me that this is their common habit, and de- 

 scribed how not long since he was exhibiting this snake 

 to Dr. Greathead, of this town (Grahamstown), who was 

 standing a little in the rear. He provoked the snake and 

 it did— with erected head— spit out a gland full of venom, 

 which flew past Dr. Schonland, just touching bis cheek, 

 but the greater portion entering Dr. Greathead's eye. "As 

 for me, I had only to wipe it off," he added, "but the 

 Doctor was in great pain, though he immediately re- 

 turned to his house and applied washes to his eye, it gave 

 him pain for several days." It still might be accidental 

 that the venom entered the eye; but those who have ob- 

 served this snake think not. We do not assume that 

 vicious snakes know that the eye is a sensitive organ with 

 a particularly delicate membrane over it, but it may be 

 that the brightness or the expression of a human eye in- 

 vokes their displeasure. Dr. Schonland related other 

 incidents which he considered conclusive, and the idea 

 certainly prevails here. 



Space will not permit me now to enumerate further 

 ophidian eccentricities. Catherine C. Hopley. 



Something like two years ago the American Telegraph 

 Company erected a line of unusually large and fine-looking 

 polps between this place and New Haven. A large number 

 of the poles were of Southern cedar, and these were, per- 

 haps, the best lookiug ones in the lot. The inspectors, how- 

 ever, in making their trips over the route, have found that 

 these poles seem to weaken very quickly, and an investiga- 

 tion discloses the reason. The poles, it seems, are the homes 

 of numerous insects and the woodpeckers were quick to 

 discover the fact, and in their pecking for the insects have 

 literally honeycombed many of the poles, rendering it 

 necessary for them to be replaced with new ones. In one 

 short stretch of the line through what is known as Coe lane, 

 three of the poles were fairly destroyed by the predatory 

 birds,— Ansonia (.Qonn,) Sentinel. 



