THE EDUCATIONAL HUMANE SOCIETY 
191 
you write. 
My experience with snakes is rather 
limited. I have never before had as 
large a snake as my indigo snake. 
Among the various ones I have had as 
pets years ago were our ordinary gar- 
ter snakes, the local water vipers, hog- 
nose and a diamond rattler, the latter 
fifty-three inches long, a wonderfully 
handsome specimen. I handled that fel- 
low about as I do the indigo snake now. 
I looped him about my shoulders and 
carried him looped over my arms. Oc- 
casionally I turned him loose in my lab- 
oratory for exercise when I had several 
hours’ work there. I kept him in an old 
aquarium with glass bottom. This was 
easily cleaned with a wet cloth. I wiped 
up all about the snake, then pushed it 
into another corner and after cleaning 
where it had been pushed it back to 
its former place. I do not believe I 
would attempt anything like that again, 
but at the time I was considerably 
younger and of course much more reck- 
less and foolhardy. Never did that 
rattler attempt to bite me, but of course 
I never treated it roughly nor was I 
ever mean to it and I aimed never to 
frighten it, so apparently we were the 
very best of friends. 
Dr. G. A. Hinnen. 
Observation of Ants. 
Port Matilda, Pennsylvania. 
To the Editor : 
When I was a child I was taught that 
ants were anty-mires. Probably all 
country children were taught the same 
name for the wonderful insect. 
A post on our portico had become 
decayed inside, also infested by black 
ants. Some were much larger than 
others and had wings. I often amused 
myself watching those large black ants, 
and thought probably they were the 
same, without wings, that would infest 
our sugar barrel. We would lay tansy 
around to protect the sugar. There is a 
black ant, also a small red ant, that 
visits cupboards. The red ant is con- 
sidered worse than the black one, it be- 
ing particularly fond of pie. 
Ants will bring up mineral from un- 
derneath the nest and when examined 
on graves in the cemetery seem to have 
chippings of bone. A good dose, a gal- 
lon, of petroleum on the nest will end 
their labors. 
Before a rain vacant spots of earth 
or trodden paths are sometimes scat- 
tered full of small nests of ants. 
Large nests may be seen near the 
road between Tyrone and Warriors 
Mark, in other words east of Tyrone 
probably two miles. Also near Altoona 
are nests a foot or two high or higher. 
The place is known as Ant Nests and 
building lots are being sold there. 
There has been considerable worry 
among women over ants visiting peony 
buds which are often literally covered 
with them, probably after the aphides, 
their milk cows, and protecting the 
buds. Sometimes the buds that were 
covered by ants die. It may have been 
the aphides that killed them or the ants 
after some saccharine substance. 
Harriet E. Wilson. 
This unusual observation of chips of 
bone found on graves in old cemeteries 
was referred to Dr. W. M. Wheeler, a 
specialist with ants, at the Bussey In- 
stitution for Research in Applied Biol- 
ogy, Forest Hills, Boston, Massa- 
chusetts, and he writes as follows : 
“There seems to be nothing improba- 
ble about ants bringing up chippings of 
bone in cemeteries. The nests evidently 
go down sometimes to a distance of six 
or eight feet in the ground, and very 
small objects such as fragments of bone 
might be brought to the surface. On the 
plains in Wyoming Professor Hatcher 
many years ago found that the teeth of 
small fossil mammals were often col- 
lected on the mounds of the Occident 
ant. These small teeth may have 
weathered out of the ground in places 
and have been brought up onto the 
mounds, or they may have been carried 
up from beneath the surface. I remem- 
ber Professor Hatcher saying, however, 
that these accumulations of small ob- 
jects on the mounds of this ant made 
them excellent places for collecting the 
teeth of small fossil mammals.” 
“Spring is Here.” 
The breezes crooned it to the hills, 
The sunbeams told the trees, 
The flower-fragrance in the air 
Apprised the wandering bees. 
The birds are caroling abroad 
The best news of the year; 
Writ large, it is, on all outdoors, 
The message — -“Spring is here!” 
— Emma Peirce. 
