Dec. 21, 1912 
FOREST AND STREAM 
783 
Indiana Nature Notes 
I T is probable that the uninformed are of the 
opinion that nothing of moment comes out 
of Indiana but the productions of “them 
litrary fellers.” This is a serious mistake. We 
have other claims to fame, although we are com¬ 
pelled to admit, for the sake of sterling truth, 
that some of them are based on fiction. 
In Indiana this is the open season for fish 
and snake stories, and the cleaning up is one to 
stagger the record. Take the contribution of 
Mrs. Grace Enos, for instance. She lives down 
St. Paul way, not far from the famed Flatrock 
River. In due course of her domestic duties she 
placed a batch of fine eggs under a faithful and' 
motherly pullet and the latter confidently began 
the task nature vouchsafed as her portion. One 
By F. L. PURDY 
coaxed them with red pepper and meat and vari¬ 
ous mixed foods, but nary an egg. The other 
day she wandered into the hennery, and there 
met face to face a large snake. Mr. Bennett 
came quickly on call, and after killing the snake 
found twenty-four eggs in its stomach. 
Mrs. Catherine Swafford, south of Milton, 
heard a commotion among her turkeys, and has¬ 
tening to the orchard she was confronted by a 
snake. She seized a fence rail and killed the 
snake. It was six feet eight inches long, but 
it had not swallowed any of the turkeys as 
yet. 
Farmer Ben Perry, down near Columbus, 
started across one of his fields to see what his 
hired man was doing with a plow, when a swarm 
prove the time-worn theory that the blacksnake 
never attacks a person. 
George Givan, of Lawrenceburg, comes on 
the scene with a story that is worth while. He 
pulled a water moccasin out of the Ohio River, 
opened it and found a catfish in its stomach at 
least—at least, mind you—six inches long. And 
right on Givan’s heels was Charles Wolff, a 
wharfmaster, who killed a hissing adder three 
feet long on the wharf. 
And there are fish, too! Little Charlie May- 
hall went fishing in the waterworks lake at Oak¬ 
land City the other day and he hooked a bass. 
And the bass pulled little Charlie into the lake. 
His rescue was accomplished with difficulty and 
the bass ran off with the line and pole. 
A HOME MADE SPOON FROM INDIANA. 
day she left her nest in quest of food and a 
dust bath, and during her absence a blacksnake 
invaded the nest and proceeded to absorb the 
eggs one after another. Like one who * has 
feasted overmuch, drowsiness seized the snake 
and he cuddled up in the nest and fell asleep. 
In a short time the hen returned to take up her 
duties and saw the snake. Did she cackle and 
fly away? She did not. Did she fly at the snake 
and beat it with her wings and pick it? She 
did not. She gave herself over to sober cogi¬ 
tation, the result of which was that she con¬ 
cluded the eggs were inside the snake and she 
could serve the purpose of her nature and her 
mistress by sitting on the snake. She settled 
herself over the invader and thus Mrs. Enos 
found her. The lady soon discovered the pres¬ 
ence of the snake and hastily called the hired 
man who killed the snake. The reptile was five 
feet two inches long and the eggs were found in 
its stomach. Here the chronicler of this tale 
stops, and it is not known whether or not the 
eggs were replaced under the pullet. 
Then there is the experience of Mrs. Samuel 
Bennett, who lives over near Bedford in the 
region of the great stone quarries. Mrs. Ben¬ 
nett discovered that her hens had apparently 
ceased to take an interest in laying eggs. She 
of bees attacked him and drove him to the tall 
alfalfa to nurse various contusions. Awaiting 
the abatement of the bees’ anger, he again 
crossed the field and there found an enormous 
blue racer coiled around the blade of the plow 
and emitting threatening hisses. Again Mr. 
Perry sprinted. After giving the snake ample 
time to go about its business, Perry and the 
hired man, who had also fled, returned to the 
plow and there they found his snakeship as full 
of fight as ever. They succeeded in giving the 
racer his quietus, but the length of this hideous 
monster is not a matter of veracious record. 
Mrs. Swafford, of Milton, again came to the 
fore at this point. This time her chickens were 
acting in an unseemly manner, and she went 
forth to reprove them. It was a snake, and hav¬ 
ing heard her, it fled. She seized a club and 
killed it. It was five feet seven inches long and 
measured five inches around the body. 
Marion Keaton, who runs a ferry across the 
Ohio River at Lawrenceburg, started his little 
launch, and instantly a “monster” blacksnake 
swam angrily out from under the treadles. Mr. 
Keaton knew that trouble was imminent, and 
seized a board and hurled it at the snake, break¬ 
ing its back. It measured seven feet two inches. 
Of course this truthful tale is expected to dis- 
Near Evansville, Grover C. Maunie went 
fishing on the banks of the Wabash and he 
caught a catfish that weighed eighty-two pounds. 
He would have admitted it had it weighed twice 
as much. 
But talking about fish, up at Wabash during 
the recent high water they found and captured 
a lot of enormous carp on the interurban track. 
They had lodged between the rails, but they had 
not flipped a car off the track with their tails 
during their stay there. And in the same town 
—right in Carroll street—carp were discovered 
in the overflow water. A genius with an auto¬ 
mobile drove his machine through the shallow 
water and the carp, in order to escape the wheels, 
flopped out of the water and were picked up by 
the chauffeur. 
Irwin Smith, of Wabash, went fishing in the 
Mississinewa and cheerfully admits that he 
caught a carp weighing twenty-three pounds. He 
tells a beautiful and thrilling story of his twenty- 
minute fight with a monster of the deep. When 
the fish was measured, it was found to be thirty- 
two inches long, three inches between the eyes, 
its head was eight inches long and its body 
thirteen inches wide. It contained six pounds 
of eggs. 
Harry Felty, of Garrett, went fishing at Lake 
