shoot along the branch chattering with an emphatic crescendo 
# 
until within a foot of the uplifted head of the snake when she 
would spring back and forth threatening to spring again hoping 
to throw him off his balance or turn him back. But her every 
effort failed, and when she had exhausted every possible means 
of driving him off, she suddenly turned about, ran up to the 
nest above and seizing a young one in her mouth ran down past 
the snake, but on the opposite side of the tree, and made her 
way into a neighboring tree. She was chattering all the time 
and fumbling and apparently fondling the young one. She was 
not satisfied, however, but leaving the young one kept coming 
back and I soon found out why -- I shot the snake and he came 
tumbling down, and as I '-reac^e^ him I was fairly startled by 
what I saw -- the snake had two legs with clawed feet, a new 
~ i 4 
feature in snake dom and I felt myself on the verge of a great 
discovery and consequent fame. The' mystery was soon explained, 
however. A young squirrel had been swallowed and two of its 
legs were protruding from the bullet holes on opposite sides of 
the snake *s body. 
The distress of the mother squirrel was pathetic and 
« 
her attacks on the snake heroic. After depositing the young 
one in the neighboring oak, she came back again and again look- 
ing for the lost one which had been swallowed by the serpent. 
The motherly care of the squirrel' for her young, and the human-like 
intelligence which led her, when she realized, that her most strenu- 
ous efforts to drive away the snake were in vain, to turn about and 
save the other little one carrying it down the opposite side 
