JdLY 7, 1S93.] 



FOREST AND STREAM. 



7 



less yoli and white of the egg of a few days before, 

 changing it into a beautiful warm little creature endowed 

 with'hopes, and fears, and longings, and knowing its 

 friends from its enemies. 



But what strange instinct was it that kept leading these 

 two babes of the wood a way from the motherly barnyard 

 hen? What did they seek so persistentl.y? Scarce an hour 

 had elapsed since their escape from the shell, and they 

 had wandered out of hearing of the good foster mother to 

 seek a wild mother that would train their wild libtle 

 nattu-es in full sympathy and understanding. Down into 

 the garden they ran, then out across the lane and into 

 the grass in the meadow. Whither they were going 

 they knew not, but go they must. They were hungry, 

 but there was no mother to teach them to eat, 

 and thirsty without knowing what water was. 

 All day long they ran through the grass 

 and under the rail fences — first brother ahead, then 

 sister — the strange impulse urging their tiny pattering 

 feet ahead as fast as they could go. It was chilly in the 

 evening and their soft down was all wet and bedraggled 

 with dew, and when it became too dark for them to see 

 the way, they stopped by a sheltering stone and snuggled 

 up close to each other with plaintive peeps, but they 

 were too tired to sleep and every now and then the droop- 

 ing eyelids opened with a start and the chicks pushed 

 closer still to each other and lisped their longings for a 

 mother's warm feathers. On the following morning they 

 could not run nearly so fast, and very often they stum- 

 bled and fell over the sticks and weed stalks that seemed 

 to them to offer more and more opposition. The pretty 

 down was roughened so that it stuck together every 

 which way, and all forlorn they were indeed. If one 

 lagged far behind or chirped pathetically when caught 

 in a tangle of grass the other would toddle back and wait, 

 for even euch mites of birds felt the desire for companion- 

 ship in misery, Ereryfew minutes they had to stop and 

 rest, and again on they would struggle, but with such 

 weak, uncertain steps that it was evident that their 

 trifling energies were almost exp"^nded long before the 

 cold dew had again soaked and chilled them. They were 

 not so very far from the brush lot where their real 

 mother was*, but that night when the two tender little 

 wanderers tried to comfort each other there was not a 

 bit of warmth for them to exchange and they shivered 

 and trembled so that they could not have kept very c'ose 

 together anyway. The morning sun looked down uijon 

 two wee wet grouse babies lying side by side in the fieW. 

 Then- eyes were closed, their yearnines had all ceased 

 and no one would have distinguished them from the 

 quartz stones of the field. Such a short experience with 

 life! 



All of this while the mother grouse was having care 

 enough with her brood of eight, even if two were miss- 

 ing. They would eat nothing but insects, and it kept the 

 old bird pretty busy scratching over the leaves to find 

 enough for them. In one corner of the brush lot there 

 was a large red ants' nest, and there the chickens had 

 great fun when they had grown to be nimble of foot. 

 The mother would scratch away a part of the loose heai^ 

 of soil, and then when the ants bustled out, some de- 

 voted to angry passions and others hurrying to carry oJ? 

 the long wliite eggs that had been exposed, the little 

 chickens became so expert at snapping them up that in 

 the conceit born cf successful experience they even 

 chased a fly in the absurd expectation of catching it, and 

 the fly was so much surprised at their assurance that it 

 allowed itself to be caught, for such is often the relation 

 of ambition to seeming impossibilities. One needs only 

 to be stupid enough to obtain everything. 



The young birds grew rapidly and became experts at 

 avoiding their natural enemies. If a sharp-shinned hawk 

 flew over, the mother gave a warning note, and instantly 

 each chick dropped so flat against the ground that it was 

 impossible for the very best eyes to see one of them. 

 When the farmer's boy again had occasion to cross the 

 brush lot the hen bird had advised the chickens to hide 

 long before he came near them, for even if he had not 

 cared to disturb the little ones, such a boy may accident- 

 ally tread directly upon angels if he does not see them, 

 and to lead him away the mother fluttered and liaiped 

 along the ground, pretending to be lame and unable to 

 fly. The boy knew well this trick of the bird, but she 

 pretended to be so really in distress this time that he 

 floundered after her through the briers. When he was 

 far enough away, however, she took to her wings as 

 usual, and circled by a long route back to the brood 

 again. One cluck was suflicient to cause the ground to 

 spring into life about her, and the chickens were all safe. 



A hooded adder that was sunning himself in the dry 

 sheep path one day suddenly awoke and found a chicken 

 quite near him, and although the little thing was too 

 much frightened to run very fast it nevertheless got out 

 of the dangerous vicinity in time and the adder had to 

 console himself with a fat cricket. What luck for 

 the chicken that it was a slow adder instead of a black 

 racer, for the latter would have followed it at any ne- 

 cessary rate of speed, and after mesmerizing it by the 

 cruel charming of cross glides and super-ambient head 

 and fulgurating tongue would finally have ended 

 the vicious play by creeping an ugly gullet over the soft 

 prey. 



There was one enemy, though, that came so insidi- 

 ously that the mother gave no warning note, and it 

 would have availed nothing if she had done so, A great 

 harmless blue heron Lad just sagged along over the 

 brook in awkward flight, when from his wake came a 

 winged tick, the dreadful lipopteua, buzzing in eccentric 

 lines until he espied the grouse. With devilish precis- 

 ion of aim the uncanny harpy of a thing struck the soft 

 feathers of her back and disappeared among them with 

 an eerie side wise glide. The very thought of harboring 

 such a parasite was enough to make the grouse shudder, 

 but she feared more for tlie little ones than for herself, 

 Follow the tick as she would with her bill when a wrig- 

 gling feather disclosed its locality she could not find the 

 horrible thing, until at evening, when the chicks were 

 gathered about her it huskily buzzed from her breast. 

 She caught it quickly, but could not swallow it, for the 

 tough elastic legs had encircled the edge of her bill, nor 

 could she crush it because the leathery body expanded in 

 any direction when she brought all her strength to bear 

 upon it. Finally the foul tick in the most unconcerned 

 manner deliberately crawled from her bill and svith its 

 fiendish directness struck the neck of one of the hand- 

 somest of the brood and fastened itself there firmly in 

 the intention of remaining in spite of all r emonefcranoe. On 



the following day the tick, swelling with the life blood 

 of the chicken , discarded its wings as an evidence of 

 determination to remain, and a few days later it gave 

 birth to a single offspring, full-winged and ready for 

 attack. The young imp fastened itself to the chicken's 

 neck close by its parent, and no matter how hard the 

 mother grouse pulled at them she only succeeded in 

 stretching out their rubber-like bodies and in pulling her 

 little chick off from his feet. Day by day the poor chick 

 grew thinner and scrawnier, while his sturdy brothers 

 and Bisters went steadily along in development, and the 

 brood would soon b.ave numbered only seven had not 

 the aiother bird fortunately led them far into the dank, 

 cool swamp on one torrid day, where much to their 

 delight was found a patch of skunk cabbage with its 

 heavy fruit. How the mother did enjoy tearing open 

 the green fleshy balls for the seeds, and the little fellows 

 feasted upon the pulp like veritable gluttons, not know- 

 ing that a,t the same time the life of the invalid in their 

 family was to be saved. The pungent aroma had only 

 just begun to cu'culate through their veins when the 

 young lick loosed his death-like grip and buzzed from 

 one chicken to another, trying to find one that was 

 agreeable, but they were all alike and so it sidled up to 

 a passing rabbit and there found lodgment. In a few 

 days it had discarded its v?ings and then there was no 

 danger of its troubling the young grouse again. The old 

 tick had tumbled otf overpowered at the same time that 

 the young one flew, and that night she was picked up on 

 the sticky end of a toad's long tongue and successtuUy 

 swallowed. Glory be to the toadl 



In July the chickens began to feast upon huckleberries, 

 and when the August blackberries were ripe they ate so 

 many and grew so fast that it soon became time for them 

 to throw oil their short suits of soft brownish chicken 

 feathers and to take on the finer colors and stout quills of 

 real grouse. With their change in dress came a change 

 in tastes, so that they no longer oared for insects, but 

 sought instead the ripened seeds and berries and tender 

 leaves, unconscious of the fact that the shooting season 

 was near at hand and that such diet was making them 

 perilously fat and luscious. 



As their wings became stronger and their tails grew 

 longer, pride began to apj^ear in difl:'erent members of the 

 family and quarrels were frequent among the youugsters. 

 They were disobedient, and stayed away from home at 

 night whenever it pi. ased them to do so. The mother 

 grouse was not much disturbed at this demonstration of 

 independence, for she knew that she had raised a brood 

 of the wildest birds of the forest, and now in September 

 she Avas willing to leave them to their own resources, 

 satisfled that she had trained them all properly in ways of 

 self -protection. Dr, Robert T. Morris. 



SNAKES. 



In any publication the heading "Snakes," always at- 

 tracts attention, and more readers are sure to peruse an 

 article of this nature than those of any other department. 

 It matters not bow far the truth is stretched or if there is 

 notapartiele of sense in the story. or account, nearly every 

 person reading the beading will follow the relation to the 

 end. It is even fair to say that there will be more be- 

 lievers if the tale smacks of the niarvelous than where 

 only plain truths are preseiited; however, there are so 

 many points of a surprising nature, yet founded on abso- 

 lute facts, that even the simplest biography of one of our 

 scaled, legless friends calls up a degree of wonderuient 

 not equaled from recitals regarding any other class of 

 animals. Should any person, prepared to speak, give his 

 tongue range, relative to the many ridiculous notions 

 held about reptiles, the scoring he would get from the 

 ignorant would quickly cause him to learn that believers 

 in the mysterious and ridiculous were still in laa-ge force. 



It would illy become the writer to cast a reflection on 

 the integrity of the natural history editor of this paper, 

 for I doubt not his ability to determine many fact?, and 

 yet readers have seen items hardly consistent with plaus- 

 ible snake lore. L?t us say, then, that inaccuracies have 

 crept into this, as they do into all papers, and without 

 reference to them, for we do not wisti for a difcussion 

 or to be in anyway personal, we will proceed to detailing 

 a few observations taken with a view to a study of snake 

 habits. The desire with me to answer many communica- 

 tions in different papers relative to habits of snakes has 

 often been so strong that I could hardly restrain myself, 

 but these remarks are intended to convey knowledge on 

 the subject, and not as a criticism of others' views. All 

 the insight I have had into the subject has resulted from 

 personal observation, and the discoveries thus made have 

 often been so surprising that I have largely forgiven 

 many writers for exaggeration, and I am aware that it is 

 not fair to assert that all persons who write improbable 

 snake stories are snake liars. 



Here in Michigan there is but a single species of poison- 

 ous snake among twenty-five or more kinds that I know. 

 The dangerous one is the common massasauga or prairie 

 rattlesnake {Caudisona tergemina, Say). Many times 

 have I been called upon to decide on' a specimen sup- 

 posed to be poisonous, but always have found that the 

 so-called copperhead or moccasin resolved itself into an 

 innocuous water snake or harmless milk snake. I do not 

 think that there exists another poisonous species in Michi- 

 gan besides the common massasauga, although the north- 

 ern or banded rattlesnake (C'rotalus durisms) is found 

 within fifty miles of our southern boundary in Indiana, 

 and may, for ought 1 know, occasionally be found within 

 our confines. It is common in Pennsylvania and Illi- 

 nois. . 



The common massasauga is far from rare at present in 

 southern Michigan, and in the early days of this (Kala- 

 mazoo) county was very abundant. To believe the stories 

 of the early settlers, a low meadow could not be mowed 

 without encountering from ten to a hundred of these 

 poisonous serpents. They grew to an enormous size at 

 that, few being killed less than 4ft. long, and a length of 

 5 or 6ft. was common; while the smallest number of rat- 

 tles adorning a tail of this monster (?) species was sixteen, 

 and from that up to forty odd. It may not be best to dis- 

 pute the stories of the old settlers, for many of them are 

 still vigorous and have their own ways of "argyfyin';" 

 but if their mighty tales cannot be believed, it is best to 

 go into the woods and fields and capture specimens, 

 measure them a,nd note i:>eculiarities. This Avork, fol- 

 lowed more or less assiduously since 1872, has proved and 

 disproved many theories and also given me many reli- 

 able faetsi I have yet to.find an individual of thia species 



40in. long, and fully doubt if one ever did or ever will 

 exceed that length in our State, The usual length is 

 from 30 to 24in,, and not one out of ten will reach a 

 length of 28in, The greatest number of rattles found by 

 me is eleven, and they were on a very large sijecimen. 

 I did not wonder, aa i gazed on its proportions as it lay 

 coiled in an attitude of defense, that the timid should 

 entertain rather strong stories aa regards size. Science 

 was to be benefited by a measurement of the animal, and 

 a tap on the head followed by a dislocation of the verte- 

 bral column quickly silenced its noisily vibrating tail. 

 This serpent— the most hideous specimen of its kind I 

 have ever met with — measured only 36in. from tip to tip, 

 less by iVm. than I had judged as she lay coiled. It was 

 6Ain. m circumference. 



The number of rattles has never exceeded eleven, and 

 six or seven is the usual number, many specimens being 

 found possessed of only three or four. One that came 

 near biting me was only lOin. long and sported a single 

 x'attle. It must not be supposed that the largest snakes 

 possess the most rattles, for although this obtains in the 

 majority of cases, very often shorter snakes have the 

 greater number of adornments, and again the entire 

 danger signal, or a portion of it, is removed by some 

 means. It is an error to suppose that the rattles are shed 

 each year as are the horns of the deer, or that a new rat- 

 tle is added each time the skin is shed. A friend of mine 

 owned a massasauga over one year, and while the skin 

 was exfoliated the rattles remained intact and without 

 additions. Men who owned rattlesnakes of the diamond 

 species in Florida informed me that an adult might add 

 one or two rattles, that is, sections to the rattle, in a year, 

 or again not any , and that the changing of the skin ex- 

 foliation had nothing to do with the new formation. AH 

 agreed that the older rattlers of the South were provided, 

 as a rule, with a longer rattle than the younger ones. 

 Said one man, i.>ointing to the six specimens of the dia- 

 mond rattlesnake, C. adamanteus, about Ifiin. long and 

 possessed of a single rattle and button, as the terminal 

 and growing portion is called, ''Those little rattlers were 

 born in this house, and when they were a few weeks old 

 I mounted them as you see them," 



Once the pleasure of witnessing the shedding of a 

 massasauga's skin was accorded me in a whortleberry 

 swamp on a hot summer's day. The swamp was full of 

 Indians, mainly equaws and pappooses, and bloodthirsty 

 mosquitoes. la my efforts to keep the moscpiitoes at a 

 living distance and the redskins away from the snake in 

 the regular path, the reptile sensed me or something, 

 although as blind as a bat, and wormed into a hole, 

 opening below into numerous ramifications made by 

 the roots of scrub ash and tamaracks. His snakeship 

 again made his appearance, having in the meantime in- 

 creased the rent in his raiment. Twice more he disap- 

 jjeared during the following hours, and each time re- 

 appeared with more new bright skin visible, evidently 

 showing that he made use of his underground retreat to 

 assist in the removal of, his external habiliments. The 

 movements of this snake were so peculiar that they are 

 described for the benefit of my readers, as very few will 

 ever have the opportunity of witnessing a wild snake 

 shedding his skin in its haunts. When the ugly fellow 

 was first seen he was totally blind, as could be readily 

 told by the white opaque appearance of his eye, caused 

 undoubtedly by the separation of the external or slough- 

 ing cuticle. This covering of the eye is connected with 

 the rest of the exfoliated tissue. As soon as the massa- 

 sauga had liberated his head from the opening in his ex- 

 ternal skin a singular performance was enacted, the 

 knowing fellow wormed himself around among the roots 

 and against the bark of trees. One peculiar movement I ■ 

 noticed particularly; it consisted in backing up the base 

 of a small tree tail first, till it was at an angle of nearly 

 eighty degrees, and then suddenly squirming down in 

 its natural way and again circling about among the 

 roots. Occasionally it would apparently endeavor to 

 distend the outer enveloping membrane by swelling its 

 sides with air, and this was more noticeable when the 

 skin was massed over the greatest diameter of its body. 

 As soon as this portion of the body was passed, the 

 process was quickly completed. In this case the oper 

 ation did not occupy quite three hours in completion, 

 and when finally the wand of ..'Sieculapius came forth 

 liright and shining and entirely free from his external 

 or overcoat, he left that last year's !article of wearing 

 apparel lying directly across the hole where I had first 

 beheld him. I have seen snakes in confinement which 

 did not get entirely free from their old clothes for 

 weeks, and then only in sections; and it is not unusual 

 to observe wild individuals running about with various 

 tatters hanging to them, giving a decidedly vagabond 

 air to a naturally graceful creature. 



While we are discussing the skin-shedding process it 

 may be well to mention a few observations on the sub- 

 ject, although not dii-ectly dealing with the species under 

 discussion. I am satisfied that in the unconfined state, 

 snakes, as a rule, crawl out of their skins, leaving them 

 nearly i:)erfect, but of course inverted and with an invari- 

 able rent on the head. So exact are the impressions of 

 every pcale in the body and plates of the head, marked on 

 the exfoliation, that one who is used to identifying speci- 

 mens by this means can readily tell the species from 

 which it came. Although the skin is generally entire, 

 or that is intact at least, it is not always so; for, though 

 it is a natural seasonal condition, it may be modified by 

 some cause. This was noticeable in a gopher snake in 

 the South, where an old wound on the side failed to admit 

 of complete inversion, and consequently the skin clung 

 to it and came away in patches. The skins may be found 

 in June and July and sometimes in late May, and of 

 course indicate by their identity the period of exfoliation 

 of the species to the ophiologist. The skin is at first 

 somewhat moist and may be drawn into shape and some- 

 times made into quite a fair representation of the original 

 by the u^e of proper stuffing; but there is no coloring to 

 the exfoliation, showing that the pigment cells lie deeper 

 and that this mask corresponds to the human epidermis 

 or scarf-skin. One use that discarded snake skins are put 

 to, and in fact the only one which I have ever been able 

 to learn of, is that of forming a part of the nest construc- 

 tion of a bird, quite abundant in these parts, known as 

 the Myiarchus erinitus, great-crested flycatcher. This 

 bird, which builds its nest in a hollow of a dead limb, 

 telegraph pole or occasionally fence-rail or equally odd 

 place, invariably, in constructing its nest, so far as my 

 observations go, employs a cast-oft' snake skin. There 

 may be only a piece of skin employed or several pieces. 



