692 
FOREST AND STREAM. 
[May 6, 1911. 
ing. In damp or rainy weather melted tallow 
may be substituted for the starch. In this case 
the wheat should first be slightly warmed, the 
saccharine and strychnia added, and the tallow 
then applied, about a quart answering for a 
bushel of wheat. 
Mr. Dearborn advises distributing this poison 
under logs and shelving boulders. A bushel ot 
wheat is enough for forty acres. The best time 
to put out the poison is in spring, when food 
is scarce. 
Snakes of England. 
Weald Park, Brentwood, England, April 20. 
—Editor Forest and Stream: In your issue of 
Feb. 11, on page 217, there is a short reference 
to the British viper. As a gamekeeper from 
birth, I have had every opportunity to observe 
the four varieties of reptiles—all we have here 
in our old Anglo-Saxon land. The first of these 
is the ring-necked snake, sometimes called grass 
snake, and well known over the greater part of 
England. This is the largest of our four rep¬ 
tiles, some of the females ranging up to three 
feet six inches in length and with a girth of 
about three and a half inches in the largest 
specimens. From thirty-four to thirty-six inches 
is a good average. This reptile is the only one 
of the four that is called a snake. The other 
three are classed as adders. 
Frogs are the favorite food of the grass snake, 
though it does not object to mice and young 
game birds. It is very timid and quite harm¬ 
less, so far as poison is concerned. It is fond 
of marshy, damp land and is generally found 
not far from lakes and streams, and although 
not a water snake, as it lives on land, it is a 
good and fast swimmer and does not hesitate 
to cross a pond or lake to get out of danger. 
In color it is usually a kind of olive green, with 
a yellow stripe behind the head, which has the 
appearance of a ring and has given it the name 
ringed snake. This snake casts its skin annually 
in the late spring or early summer, and this 
greatly improves its appearance, as the yellow 
ring and olive green skin then show to perfec¬ 
tion. The young come into existence from eggs 
laid by the female snake. Manure heaps are a 
favorite place for the snake to deposit her eggs. 
They are dirty white in color and they are 
bunched together in small lumps and are hatched 
by the combined warmth of the sun and manure. 
The second variety is the black adder, called 
in some localities black viper. It is readily 
known by the curious V-shaped black stripes on 
its broad flat head. The center of the back is 
marked from head to tail by zig-zag. diamond¬ 
shaped patches of the same color. The remain¬ 
ing part of the body is generally a dirty brown. 
The bite of this reptile is poisonous and has 
been known to prove fatal, both to human beings 
and dogs. It rarely exceeds twenty-four inches 
in length with a girth about the middle of the 
body from two to three inches. This, however, 
is a full limit, both in length and girth, even for 
the largest females. In some parts of England 
they are quite numerous, but more so years ago 
than now, for gamekeepers have never shown 
them any mercy, as they are dangerous both to 
sporting dogs and young game birds. I well 
recollect also the time when I was managing a 
big park of deer down in the South of England, 
finding dead newly-born fawns with their heads 
swollen double their natural size that had been 
bitten by this reptile. 
Unlike the ring-necked snake, this is not timid, 
but quite the reverse. It generally lies in a coil 
and prefers to strike rather than to move out 
of the way, whereas the snake will always make 
its escape if possible. All four of our English 
varieties of reptiles hibernate for about five 
months, more or less, according to the seasons 
and weather. The black adder leaves his winter 
quarters in March, at which time he is generally 
in very good condition, and his fat when refined 
into oil, is considered an excellent antidote for 
deafness. It is also said to be a very good 
remedy and cure for its own bite. The young 
of this reptile are not hatched from eggs; they 
are brought forth alive, are black in color and 
about two inches in length at birth. They are 
generally from five to eight in number. They 
are found in the spring of the year on sunny 
hillsides, the female adder and her young being 
together. It is said by some people and generally 
believed in rural districts in many parts of the 
South of England that when the young adders 
are quite small, say only a few days old, if 
alarmed the mother viper will permit her young 
family to enter her mouth and pass into her 
stomach, and there to remain until the danger 
is past, when they are again returned to day¬ 
light. Personally I cannot verify this statement, 
as I have never actually seen the occurrence, 
although I quite believe there is some truth to 
the assertion. 
Both black viper and ring-necked snakes are 
great lovers of all kinds of young newly-hatched 
birds. They will' even crowd up into bushes a 
few feet from the ground to rob the song birds’ 
nests of the young. 
The third variety is known as the red viper. 
It is a small, but an extremely vicious reptile and 
will strike at the first opportunity. It seldom if 
ever exceeds twelve inches in length and both 
head and body are more inclined to be flat than 
round in shape. Its color is a rusty red or 
might be called reddish-brown. It is found in 
the southern counties of England, but was never 
very plentiful even in the south, and in many 
parts of the country it is never seen and is quite 
unknown. In this locality where I rusticate, I 
have never found one of the kind, although I 
have been residing in this county upward of 
twenty years. 
Red vipers are uniform in color; that is to 
say, the diamond-shaped black patches on the 
back, which are so conspicuous in the black 
adder, are totally absent in the red variety. Red 
vipers are generally found high up on dry sunny 
hills, but I have never seen more than a single 
one at the same time and place, whereas with 
the black variety it was not unusual a few years 
ago to find several adult adders lying within a 
few feet of each other, especially in the early 
spring, immediately after leaving their hibernat¬ 
ing quarters. 
The fourth variety is the small deaf adder, 
ranging from nine to twelve inches in length. 
In color they are a uniform glossy brown and 
are well known over the greater part of the 
country. The head is not flat like the black and 
red varieties, but small and oval, they are quite 
harmless and very slow in motion. It lies at 
full length, never in a coil. It never attempts 
to strike and seldom if ever tries to escape. 
H. PIickmott. 
Birds Near Washington. 
Washington, D. C., April 29. — Editor Forest 
and Stream: On Saturday, April 22, an excur¬ 
sion was made by the Audubon Society of Wash¬ 
ington, D. C., to the Dike, on the Potomac, near 
Wellington Station, between Alexandria and Mt. 
Vernon, Virginia, with T. S. and William Palmer, 
of the Biological Survey, and the National 
Museum, respectively, as guides. 
The start was made in the morning under 
lowering skies, with a chill northeast wind, and 
the thermometer at 46 degrees. Later in the 
day, on the return to Washington, at 1 .30 p. m., 
it registered as low as 40 degrees. The Dike, 
a narrow strip of land extending into the river 
at right angles with the shore, is lined with trees 
and occupied by fishermen’s huts. Plenty of 
freshly caught shad and innumerable oyster and 
clam shells were in evidence, as well as a setter 
bitch with a new born litter of pups. She 
greeted the visitors very amiably, however. 
In spite of the unfavorable weather a number 
of birds were observed, most of which were 
found on the Dike. Upon arriving at the point 
of destination the party ascended the slope lead¬ 
ing from the river across and beyond the tracks 
of the Washington and Mt. Vernon railway. 
Here were cultivated fields interspersed with 
groves and thickets having the appearance of 
suitable breeding quarters for birds. Some of 
the birds observed on this elevation were white¬ 
breasted nuthatches, yellow-breasted warblers, 
black-capped titmice, field sparrows, towhees 
(Pipilo erythrophthahnus) , juncos, chipping and 
song sparrows, cardinals, bluejays, brown 
thrashers, mourning doves, Carolina wrens, 
white-throated sparrows, golden-crowned king¬ 
lets, phoebes and purple finches. 
On the Dike the following were seen: Downy 
woodpecker, Bonaparte’s gull (fishing in flocks 
on the river), red-winged blackbird, purple 
grackle, flicker, meadow lark, chimney swift, 
barn swallow, catbird, tufted titmouse (Bceolo- 
phus bicolor ), blue-gray gnatcatcher ( Polioptila 
ccerulra) , pine warbler (Dcndroica vigorsi) and 
swamp sparrow ( Melospisa georgiana). 
On the trip down and at New Alexandria, spot¬ 
ted sandpiper, osprey (circling high above river), 
bluebird, black American crow, herring gull and 
scaup duck were sighted. 
At 12:30 p. m. rain began to fall and compelled 
a reluctant return to Washington. The trip, al¬ 
though of very short duration, could not be 
termed a failure. S. M. Cronberger. 
Passing of the Antelope. 
Tiif. pronghorned antelope, an animal peculiar 
to North America, is in danger of extinction. 
This antelope, which has so many peculiarities 
that naturalists class it in a family by itself, 
once existed by thousands on the open Western 
plains. The naturalists of the country fear its 
absolute extinction in the near future unless 
protection is given to the few remaining. 
In 1908 the biological survey estimated that 
the total number of antelopes in the United 
States had been reduced to 17,000. Of these 
about 10,000 were in Montana, Wyoming and 
the Yellowstone National Park, and the remain¬ 
ing 7.000 were distributed in twelve other States. 
—Chicago Daily News. 
