f 
’l 
i » 
. 
Nov. 20, 1909.] 
game fish. Nevertheless some of our best fishes 
are named. Salamanders, frogs, toads, snakes 
and turtles conclude Mr. Fowler’s contribution 
to the volume. New Jersey has but two vene- 
mous snakes, the copperhead and the rattlesnake 
which, however, are scarce. It has a single lizard 
(Sceloporus undulatus) and many turtles. 
An excellent index concludes the volume, which 
is to be commended as a most useful book de¬ 
serving a wide circulation. 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
813 
The Behavior of a Snake. 
Writing from St. Louis, Mo., C. H. Turner 
contributed to a recent number of Science a 
■nost interesting and suggestive account of the 
ictions of a snake in pursuit of its prey. We 
[ive the detail of the animal’s actions, omitting 
>nly the concluding paragraphs of the articles, 
vhich are addressed especially to scientific men: 
1 Several years ago, while Mr. Lester and I 
'vere sauntering along a country road near 
>lewnan, Ga., a commotion was heard in the 
ry leaves along the side of the road. On 
uietly entering the underbrush it was noticed 
lat the noise was caused by a struggle between 
i coach-whip snake ( Zamiens flagellum flagellum 
haw) and a lizard that was unknown to me. 
'he snake was about four feet long; the lizard 
;ss than a foot. They were not fighting; the 
rake was trying to make a meal of the un- 
lanageable lizard. Frequently the lizard es- 
lped from the snake. Then would follow a 
lase resulting in the recapture of the lizard, 
he snake invariably caught the lizard by the 
idy. I knew that if the snake were to capture 
ie l’ zar d by the tail, the lizard would break 
f the tail and escape. The snake, behaving 
though aware of this, attracted my attention 
id caused me to remain and study its move- 
ents. 
So intent was the snake upon mastering the 
ard that it paid no attention to me, standing 
ere as quietly as a statue. Several times the 
rsued lizard and the chasing snake passed 
ross my feet. At one time the lizard, on es- 
ping from the snake, darted up a tall tree, 
ie snake followed. Here the four articulated 
•ibs of the former gave it a decided advan¬ 
ce. After darting up the tree for a short dis- 
lice the lizard paused and glanced backward. 
1 soon as snake had approached quite near, 
I: lizard darted ahead a short distance, and 
t n a S ain paused and glanced backward. These 
r 'Procal movements were repeated several 
ties. Then, all of a sudden, the snake drop- 
-I to the ground. The lizard continued to 
be downward. About a foot from the tree 
m which the lizard was resting, head down- 
rd, there stood another tree. Spirally up this 
■nk the snake quietly and slowly climbed until 
<^as a few inches above the level of the lizard, 
unsuspecting lizard was scrutinizingly gaz- 
downward. Quietly and quickly the snake 
ended the front portion of its body and, 
h a sudden dart of the head, knocked the 
rd to the ground. Before the latter had time 
recover from the effect of the unexpected 
v, the snake had dropped to the ground and 
iptured it. The lizard was not yet con- 
red, but this article is concerned only with 
behavior up to this point, 
his behavior puzzled me for a number of 
'•s. I was reluctant to call it an exhibition 
of logical judgment, yet it seemed entirely too 
complex to be regarded as reflex action and too 
individualistic to be considered instinctive in the 
ordinary sense. From the nature of the case, 
tropisms, as defined by Loeb, are out of the 
question. Nor could it be considered a “trial 
and error” response, for there is no series of 
errors followed by a blundering into a solution 
and a gradual “stamping in” of the appropriate 
response. 
The problem that confronted this snake was 
how to overpower that lizard. Until the lizard 
climbed the tree, the follow-the-stimulus move¬ 
ments, which were either instincts or habits, 
were sufficient to cause the capture of the lizard, 
but the moment the latter ascended the trunk 
of that tree those movements, unmodified, were 
inadequate. Suddenly the behavior of the snake 
changed. It paused, then immediately met the 
situation with a response which was a special 
modification to suit a special circumstance, and 
this is what we mean by a practical judgment. 
Another Snake Battle. 
Waterlily, N. C., Nov. 8 .—Editor Forest and 
Stream: E. T. Woodruff’s experience with the 
rattler and kingsnake reminds me of what I 
saw here at Currituck seven years ago. 
My son, a boy of fourteen, came up from the 
landing with what we call a cornsnake twisted 
about a moccasin, the latter much larger than 
the cornsnake, but not so long by perhaps fif¬ 
teen inches. The boy held them by the tail, 
carrying them about one hundred yards to the 
residence. The cornsnake never for a moment 
released his grip on the throat of the moccasin 
or tried to unwind the coil. For two hours 
seven of my family watched the struggle. 
The moccasin was quite dead in half an hour, 
but the rest of the time was consumed in crush¬ 
ing the bones and stretching the moccasin out until 
the body was much smaller than before death. 
Even so it seemed larger than the cornsnake. 
When the moccasin was finally straightened 
out its conqueror went to the head, and in half 
an hour more the moccasin had entirely dis¬ 
appeared down the throat of the other. 
This is a true story every whit. 
More Anon. 
large flock coming over a grove on the top of 
a nearby hill and I called my wife, who also 
saw them. As nearly as we could judge there 
were from 100 to 150 birds. They passed over 
Mr. Pratts house, just below mine, and prob¬ 
ably ten rods from the window, and after going 
south some distance, six of them came back and 
passed directly in front of the window over a 
tree in my place. We could see them perfectly. 
They were the regular old birds, such as I used 
to shoot around here in 1878. 
Other people have seen them this year. Col. 
Peirce and John Coats have seen single birds 
this fall and they have been reported from other 
parts of the county. 
I know the mourning dove very well, and they 
are still found on the Montague Plains. These 
birds were not doves. Thos. L. Comstock 
Zoos of the World Compared. 
Very few institutions publish their statistics 
annually, but we will offer all that are available 
at the present date. The latest general census 
was that for Jan. 1, 1907, when the figures were, 
as shown below, drawn chiefly from the official 
report made by Dr. Gustave Loisel, of Paris, 
to the French Government. All are as of Jan! 
1, 1907, except New York and London, which 
are for 1908: 
Mam¬ 
mal: 
New York Zoological Park 607 
Berlin . 
London . 
Philadelphia .__ 
Hamburg . 473 
Schoenbrunn . 
Cologne . 
Breslau . 
Frankfort . @44 
Reptiles 
and Am- 
mals. 
Birds. 
phibians. 
T’t’l 
607 
2530 
897 
4034 
946 
2176 
27 
3149 
873 
1621 
478 
2972 
487 
952 
1087 
2526 
473 
1665 
251 
2389 
593 
1351 
171 
2085 
424 
1479 
98 
2001 
592 
1067 
184 
1843 
644 
1002 
158 
1804 
Passenger Pigeons Reported. 
Greenfield, Mass., Nov. j. — Editor Forest and 
Stream: I can say without any doubt that the 
old fashioned wild pigeon has been in and around 
this town both last year and this, for I have 
distinctly seen them on two occasions. 
Last fall, when four of us were playing golf, 
a flock, which we estimated at from seventy- 
five to one hundred, passed within gunshot of 
us. We saw them coming for half a mile, and 
they passed over us so near that we could hear 
the whistle of their wings, and saw the old 
male birds with their pink breasts and long tail 
feathers. They were not mourning doves, being 
much larger birds. They were in sight until 
they reached the limits of Bernardstown and 
were going, of course, north. This was, I should 
say, in October, 1908. One of the men with me 
had shot wild pigeons, and we all at once agreed 
on the species we had seen. 
About three weeks ago, as I was looking out 
of my bedroom window, at 6:30 a. m., I saw a 
And how do our collections stand to-day in 
number of species and of individuals? The ani¬ 
mal accommodations of the park are crowded 
full, to the overflowing point. On July 15, 
1909, a careful census revealed the following: 
Living animals now in the New York Zoo¬ 
logical Park: 
, Species. Specimens. 
Mammals . 246 743 
Rlrds , . 644 2816 
Reptlles . 256 1969 
Total. 
1146 
5530 
The tale is told. The Zoological Park and its 
collections must now speak for themselves. 
Last year they spoke to 1,413,739 visitors. The 
common people hear them gladly, but as yet 
the scientists of America, as a mass, do not 
seem to know that the New York Zoological 
Park has arrived. They are, as a rule, too much 
interested in soarings after the infinite and 
divings after the unfathomable to care for such 
trivial things as living animals drawn from 
strange places. But the unscientific millions, 
whom we specially desire to instruct and enter¬ 
tain, are with us, in ever-increasing numbers; 
and for them we will continue to strive.— 
William T. Hornaday, in Scribner’s. 
The Forest and Stream may be obtained from 
any newsdealer on order. Ask your dealer to 
supply you regularly. 
