Nov. 6, 1909.] 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
733 
vere the hungry hunters made bold by their 
lunger. Nearly if not quite all of the birds 
composing this flight are young of the year. 
}f the 281 observed from the tower all but two 
>r three of them were positively made out to 
ie in this plumage, while the others were viewed 
mder such conditions of light and distance that 
iio definite determination could be made. All 
akeri were also juvenile; in fact, the only adult 
ve ever took at the point was one taken Sept. 
, 1907, and before the flight had started.” 
Ornithologists and collectors should see this list. 
Kingsnake and Rattler. 
St. Augustine, Fla., Oct. 26.—Editor Forest 
nd Stream: When I found the inclosed clip- 
ing in our local paper I sent it at once to the 
ianford Herald to know whether it was a fake 
tory or not, so I inclose the editor’s reply. 
The letter'of R. J. Holly, editor of the San- 
ord Herald, follows: 
“The clipping in The Herald contains an au- 
hentic story, as E. T. Woodruff is perfectly 
eliable and not given to telling fish or snake 
tories. The episode happened on his land east 
The Tenant of the Giant’s Bed- 
Chamber.—I. 
Harry paused and looked about him, first 
jti the widespread ocean at his right, covered 
ith numerous sails and sparkling under the 
lys of the garish sun, then along the ravine 
herein he was ensconced and up its lengthened 
irve far into the distance till the converging 
itlines seemed to meet, and the overhanging, 
>lemn looking pines formed a continuous line, 
aking a complete barrier across its further 
ctremity. 
The face of the country lying all along the 
dley presented a curious appearance to a 
ranger accustomed to the level fields and well 
titivated slopes of other sections of the coun- 
y. Right at his feet ran a rivulet which, fol- 
wing the course of the ravine about midway 
:tween its sides with gentle tricklings, flowed 
the great basin of the ocean. This was the 
jiant’s Bed-Chamber,” so-called. Here were 
e evidences of his vast presence in former 
nes, and even now one might imagine without 
ty great stretch of fancy that it formed the 
sting place of some member of his family, 
uge bunches of black and unhealthy looking 
osses were scattered around the level sands 
1 either side the rivulet that one might readily 
ke for the waterfalls of some fashionable 
cient giantess which she had thrown aside 
ter once wearing at a select assembly, for they 
ire of a size and appearance and in every way 
itable for her to pin to her hair at such a 
.nction. 
The mound on which Harry rested seemed 
of the city and you can take it from me that 
it is a truthful account.” 
The following graphic account of a battle be¬ 
tween a kingsnake and a rattler was written in 
the Sanford Herald by E. T. Woodruff of that 
city: 
On Thursday last I witnessed a battle that 
I shall never forget. I had been told that the 
kingsnake and the blacksnake are the destroyers 
of the rattlesnake, but from personal observa¬ 
tion up to that time I had no knowledge. 
The life and death fight that I herewith re¬ 
count was between a kingsnake less than four 
feet long and a rattlesnake some two and a 
half or three feet in length. The kingsnake 
evidently did not desire to wage the conflict on 
anything but a clear space of ground, if he 
could avoid it, for by good generalship he 
challenged, enticed, outwitted and finally forced 
his intended victim into the open. Then began 
the tactics for supremacy in the mortal com¬ 
bat. Dodging the strikes of his adversary, 
shooting out like lightning false passes with 
cunning and skill on both sides, the sparring 
for a death hold went viciously forward. 
Presently, with too swift a dash for human eye 
to follow, the kingsnake had the under neck or 
throat of the rattler in his fangs. 
From that instant it was all over with Mr. 
Rattlesnake, so far as fight was concerned. 
Kingsnake held him with unrelenting grip, 
like a huge, green-covered pillow thrown into 
the bed for the recumbent head of the giantess 
to press, while a pathway led over the hills 
that from its frequent deep depressions and in¬ 
equalities might have been struck out originally 
by gigantic footsteps which the later tread of 
more diminutive beings had failed to obliterate. 
The low lying sands formed a mighty couch 
which, covered with variegated colored grass and 
mosses, seemed like a patchwork quilt upon which 
were spread a mosaic of pebbles of many dif¬ 
ferent hues like an embroidery of beads. 
Harry, as he imagined these things, almost 
looked for the return of the former occupant, 
and half involuntarily turned his eyes as if in 
expectation of seeing the rightful mistress come 
stalking down the hills to expel an unlawful 
intruder. But his dreaming was suddenly dis¬ 
pelled by hearing the rapid and fast approach¬ 
ing bay of the dogs. He was at once thoroughly 
awake with his fancies thrown to the winds and 
all intent upon the upshot of the chase which 
he had come so far to bring to a successful con¬ 
clusion. 
The dogs, however, failed to drive the fox 
out as he expected, but taking a sweep were 
soon driving back again toward the region 
whence they came. This maneuver they re¬ 
peated again and still again until at the third 
repetition Truesdale, who was Harry’s compan¬ 
ion, having tired of listening and waiting to no 
purpose, left his stand, and beckoning to Harry 
to follow him, went rapidly down the bluff and 
across the ravine to the opposite side and dis¬ 
appeared amid the dunes that environed it. 
Harry at once prepared to follow, for he had 
meanwhile coiling and twisting himself about 
his victim until the two resembled more than 
anything else a huge knot. When at last the 
vanquished fighter's life was chokea and 
squeezed all out of him, the kingsnake released 
his hold upon the rattler’s throat and instantly 
opening his mouth to a surprising width, gulped 
down toward his stomach the head of his slain 
foe. Slowly, and yet with a rate of speed that 
seemed incredible, the kingsnake sucked into 
his distended mouth and throat and belly, the 
entire carcass of the rattler, eschewing nothing, 
not even the four rattles at the tail of the feast. 
Concluding this, he lay in the same position a 
moment or two, the motions of his body show¬ 
ing the transition of the big jag to his stomach 
Then he rapidly licked his chops and silently 
slid away, his whole demeanor indicating ex¬ 
treme satisfaction with the banquet of which he 
had gourmandized. 
It has long been known that the large black 
snake, known as the gopher snake, had it in 
for the rattler whenever he met him, but I did 
not know that the kingsnake divided honors with 
him in pursuit of a common enemy, as he is so 
much a smaller snake. A well authenticated 
story as this is of value in the study of natural 
history and may well find a place in your 
columns. DeWitt Webb. 
become stiff and chilled by lying so long in 
one position peering from his pillow over the 
tops of the beach grass to watch for the appear¬ 
ance of either dog or game which did not come. 
Something like the best part of an hour had 
been consumed while he and Truesdale waited, 
and there seemed no more prospect of the fox 
going down the beach than there had been at 
the first start. This was evidently a different 
fox from the one they found the day previous, 
or his tactics were changed like those of General 
Bliss to suit the emergency. 
It was the same fox and his tactics had been 
changed, so that in consequence he outgeneraled 
our sportsmen again in this wise: As Trues¬ 
dale and Harry pressed anxiously up and along 
the hills toward the ground where the dogs had 
been so long following, the fox who had about 
made up his mind that he had been fooling long 
enough started to go down the beach. In so 
doing he must have seen the two sportsmen, but 
was unseen of them. The fox wheeled around 
the sandhills, was out of sight in a twinkling, 
ran along a short distance till he came to a 
convenient place to descend from the bluffs upon 
the beach below, and taking advantage of that 
cleared out and was a mile or two away before 
his trick was discovered. He passed so near 
Truesdale’s hiding place in order to get down 
this gulch or gulley leading to the beach that 
had Truesdale kept his stand he must inevitably 
have had a shot at him. 
When Truesdale and Harry came up with the 
colonel, as they soon did, inasmuch as he had 
run down to the bluffs overlooking the beach 
and thereby turned the fox back inland again, 
