Natural Science News, 



VOL. I ALBION, N. Y., MAY 11, 1895. No. 15 



Natural Science News. 



A Weekly Journal Devoted to 

 Natural History. 



FRANK H. LATTIN, Editor and Publisher, 

 ALBION, N. Y. 



Correspondence and items of interest to the 

 student ol any of the various branches of the 

 Natural Sciences solicited from all. 



TERMS OF SUBSCRIPTION. 



Price, One Dollar a Year. 



To Foreign Countries in the Universal Postal 

 Union, $1.50, equal to 6 s., or 6 marks, or 8 francs. 

 Single copies, 5 cents each. 



Subscriptions can begin with any number. 



Remittances should be made by Draft, Express 

 or Post Office Money Order, or Registered Letter. 

 Unused U, S. Postage stamps of any denomina- 

 tion will be accepted for fractional parts ot a dol- 

 lar. Make Money Orders and Drafts payable, 

 and address all subscriptions and communica- 

 tions to FRANK H. LATTIN, 

 Albion, Orleans Co., N. Y, 



Entered at Albion P. O. as 2nd class mail matter 



In response to our notice in 

 Natural Science News of Feb. 

 9th we received thirty-nine (39) 

 designs for a heading to the News. 

 Making a selection from this num- 

 ber was no small task and led to 

 the rejection of a number which 

 were perhaps fully as meritorious 

 as the one chosen. The accepted 

 heading was designed by Mr. W. 

 P. Davison, of Lockport, N. Y. , 

 who will receive the $5.00 prize 

 offered. 



The following parties sent de- 

 signs well deserving the prize, but 

 owing to the fact that only one 

 could be awarded, their designs 

 were necessarily returned: 



R. B. Farley, Trenton, N. J. 



H. V. Flickinger, Bucyrus, O. 



Chester A. Reed, Worcester, 

 Mass. 



Jas. McCraken, Cedar Rapids, 

 Iowa. 



Geo. W. Vosburg, Columbus, 

 Wis. 



Fred E. Pomeroy, Lewiston, 

 Me. 



A Group of Colored Crystals. 

 i — Take half an ounce each of al- 

 umine (alum,) sulphates of copper 

 (blue vitriol,) of iron (green vit- 

 riol), magnesia (Epsom salts,) 

 potash, soda and zinc (white vit- 

 riol,) separately dissolve them, 

 and pour all the solutions into a 

 large vessel. When the water 

 evaporates, the crystals will shoot 

 up, and the intermixture of colors 

 will present a beautiful sight. — The 

 National Educator. 



Ophidians in Captivity. 



Aristotle said that snakes were 

 confirmed epicures, lived like sy- 

 barites and were extremely fond of 

 wine, of which they were excellent 

 judges. Virgil (Aeneid, book 2, 

 line 471), speaks of the snake 

 "made venomous by feeding upon 

 poisonous plants." Pliny imagin- 

 ed that their favorite food was 

 milk. Since the day of these 

 grand old classic prevaricators the 

 snake has been made the subject 

 of exhaustive study by anatomists, 

 systematists, and by the chemists 

 who have investigated the proper- 

 ties of the poison of the venomous 

 species, but comparatively little 

 progress has been made in the 

 study of reptilian tastes and char- 

 acteristics. As O'Reilly aptly ob- 

 serves "regarding the habits of 

 snakes, we are still at the mercy 

 of Aristotle and Pliny." 



Would-be naturalists usually 

 offer their captive snakes bread 

 and butter, just as the child did 

 in the story quoted by Dr. Holmes. 

 Snakes destitute of ears, and con- 

 sequently "deaf as adders" incap- 

 able of hearing ordinary sounds 

 conveyed through the air, are still 

 represented as being "moved by a 

 concourse of sweet sounds," and 

 literally dancing to music. Few 

 people doubt the snakes appetite 

 for milk, and the belief that they 

 will suck the milk from cows, or 

 from the breast of a sleeping wom- 

 an is an orthodox part of most 

 peoples' religion. Even Prof. E. 

 D. Cope. as I notice with profound 

 regret, says that his daughter, 

 when a girl of from six to eight 

 years, kept a number of king snakes, 

 Ophibolus gelulus, as pets, and they 

 drank milk readily from a cup 

 which she held in her hand. (See 

 "A Critical Review of the Charac- 

 ters and Variations of the Snakes 

 of North America,") 



Snakes subsist on fishes, batrach- 

 ians, reptiles, worms, insects, 

 birds and small mammals which 

 the}' swallow whole. It sometimes 

 happens that a serpent will devour 

 dead and mutilated animals, but as 

 a rule they must capture their prey 

 themselves. Venomous snakes 

 usually, but not always, bite their 

 victims and let them die before 

 swallowing them, and other snakes 

 sometimes crush their prey in their 

 coils before eating it, yet it is the 

 general habit of our common snakes 

 to swallow their victims alive. 



Some works on Natural History 

 state that snakes do not drink wa- 

 ter, but this is now well known to 

 be a mistake. Some of them drink 

 in full draughts, others lap up the 

 water, usually dew drops, with 

 their tongues. 



Certain snakes take food readily 

 in captivity. 



For example I have seen young 

 garter snakes, Eutania sirtalis, eat 

 earth worms almost immediately 

 after capture. Others obstinately 

 refuse to eat and can only be in- 

 duced to do so by giving them a 

 certain degree of liberty, and mak- 

 ing their surroundings resemble 

 those to which they are accus- 

 tomed in a state of nature. Dr. 

 Weir Mitchell often kept from 10 

 to 35 rattlesnakes at one time and 

 found them unwilling to eat dur- 

 ing the first year of their captivity. 

 He fed them by putting a long fun- 

 nel in their mouth and forcing the 

 food through it into their stomach. 

 Some German naturalists unable 

 to induce imprisoned "Cross Ad- 

 ders," Vipera berus, L., to eat tried 

 feeding them in this way, but the 

 obstinate ophidians presistently 

 disgorged the unwelcome food and 

 perished in a few months. G. 

 Bleyer-Heyden, however, kept ser- 

 pents of this same species in a 

 large, well appointed terrarium 

 and found that they would not 

 only eat but would even propa- 

 gate. 



Most of the tropical snakes 

 which we see in travelling "Mu- 

 seums" has suffered so much 

 from ill treatment and close con- 

 finement that the}' will not eat and 

 cannot discard and renew their 

 outer skins. The gaping specta- 

 tors at such "shows" are looking at 

 miserable, semi-torpid creatures. 



With anything like decent treat- 

 ment most of our harmless Colu- 

 brid snakes will eat in captivity, 

 though there is as great diversity 

 of dispositions, tastes and appetites 

 among them as among higher ani- 

 mals. The beautiful little green 

 snakes which well deserve the pro- 

 tection of every humane man, eat 

 worms and insects all their lives, 

 both Cyclophis vernalis and Phyllo- 

 philophis aesitvus being so gentle 

 that they will submit readily to 

 captivity. The Eutania sertalis on 

 the other hand soon outgrows its 

 taste for the earth-worm diet of its 

 infancy and demands toads and 

 frogs, though it will still eat earth- 

 worns in time of need and will also 



