young cottontail rabbit that was acting 
queerly. Upon closer observation I 
discovered that a large blacksnake was 
lying partly coiled, about twenty inches 
away from the rabbit. The snake’s 
head was elevated near the middle of 
the coils and was waving about and 
it seemed intently interested in the 
rabbit. The rabbit was emitting short 
shrill squeals, sitting upon its haunches 
and seemed unable to move, being ap- 
parently paralyzed with fear (or under 
the hypnotic spell of the reptile as 
some observers believe). 
I hurriedly tried to get my camera 
ready for a picture, but before I could 
do so, the snake sprang at the rabbit 
and coiled about it. Before I could 
reach it the snake had crushed the 
rabbit so that it broke the rabbit’s 
spinal column. The snake made its 
escape without eating the rabbit of 
course. 
A short time later I caught a smaller 
blacksnake and kept it for several 
months in a large wire covered box. I 
used to put live rats and mice into the 
box and watch carefully to see if I 
could see the charming process, but 
never had the chance to see it. Usually 
the snake caught the rat or mouse by 
the nose by a motion so rapid as to 
scarcely be followed by the eye and 
then quickly coiled about it, crushing 
it to death in a short time and then 
devoured it head first. 
The blacksnake is a true constrictor 
and its manner of killing its prey is 
the same as that of the python, boa 
constrictor and others. 
In 1908 I was invited to witness the 
feeding of several ‘large pythons in 
the Lincoln Park Zoo in this city, by 
genial Cy De Vry, who is now in 
charge of the Selig Zoo at Hollywood, 
Cal. Here the snakes were kept in a 
large glass case and the feeding was 
done by dropping full grown Belgian 
hares into the case. The hares hopped 
about and the snakes moved slowly 
about until a snake got its head into 
a suitable position, when by a light- 
ning-like motion it grabbed the nose 
of a hare in its mouth, rapidly threw 
its coils around its prey and squeezed 
the life out of the hare. Several of 
the hares gave utterance to shrill 
squeals when seized, but they did not 
last long. There were five or six of 
the snakes to be fed and the hares 
were dropped into the cases as long as 
the snakes would take them. Several 
of the snakes devoured as many as 
four of the large hares. 
I see the names of many of the old 
timers in ornithology in FoREST AND 
STREAM, and take this opportunity to 
greet them. Although still interested, 
I have for the last twenty years been 
too busy treating the afflicted and chas- 
ing the elusive dollar to do much else, 
but I certainly enjoy reading Forest 
AND STREAM. 
I. S. TRosTLER, M.D. Chicago. 
A BIG EEL 
DEAR FOREST AND STREAM: 
HILE fishing at Lake Elizabeth 
or better known as Twin Lakes, 
Wis., I had the pleasure and sport of 
landing an eight-pound eel measuring 
fifty inches in length. The belly was 
pure white, while the back was a 
greenish gray. I had the hook baited 
’ 

with a six inch perch and was fishing 
for pickerel. The fish gave me about 
12 minutes play before being able to 
land him. 
Believing this to be a rare specimen 
of fresh water fish, prompts me to 
write you of my catch and also enclose 
a picture of same. W. J. PETTIT, 
East Chicago, Ind. 
MR. JONES “ONS THE LOX 
QUESTION 
DEAR FOREST AND STREAM: 
R. SHAFER’S article in the Janu- 
ary number of FOREST AND 
STREAM, “Reynard of the Grey Cloak,” 
was read by me with a great degree 
of interest. 
Why is it—I would like to have an 
answer—that our grey fox, habitually 
a southern animal, is quitting our 
Southlands and migrating to the north? 
Twenty or thirty years ago he gave 
us old sportsmen of the south our 
greatest thrill in outdoor sports. To- 
day we may go for miles and miles 
with the finest pack of hounds and 
fail to start.a fox: 
Several months ago I had the audac- 
ity to criticize a brother contributor to 
our FOREST AND STREAM for trying to 
get a shot at a fox in a chase he so 
beautifully described. 
But since reading Mr. Shafer’s ar- 
ticle, I can understand clearly his ef- 
fort to exterminate the animal that we 
in the south are tying to protect. We 
have thousands and thousands of acres 
of farm and cut over lands in Alabama 
so admirably adapted to fox, still the 
animals are gradually disappearing. Is 
it because we chase them with dogs 
wherever we find them? Perhaps this 
is the way to drive the timid (7?) little 
creature further on to some other for- 
eign country. Suppose you try the 
hound, Mr. Shafer, instead of the steel 
trap. Dr. B. T. JONES, 
Geiger, Ala. 
HOME OF THE CAMPING 
TOURIST 
DEAR FOREST AND STREAM: 
HERE is a camp located five miles 
north of Tomahawk City, on state 
highway No. 10, with 85 rods frontage 
on the Tomahawk river and 30 rods 
below the Bradley dam. Above the 
dam are Big and Little Rice rivers 
which empty into the Tomahawk river, 
also Big and Little Rice lakes with 
7,000 acres of water and numerous 
other lakes in a short distance. The 
Bradley dam is a storage dam. There 
are no mills, and no sewage or pollu- 
tion of any kind is dumped into this 
river above the camp site. The Toma- 
hawk river is noted for its clear, cold 
water. I have heard and read a great 
deal about the camping tourists being 
called hogs and tin can campers. I 
have had a good many campers on my 
grounds and would defy any one to 
find a tin can when they left; so there 
must be two kinds. Mr. Shannon is an 
old Ike Walton and keeps boats to rent. 
Here is an opportunity for auto 
campers to avail themselves of a fine 
camp site, free. 
ANOTHER CASE OF “OVER 
THE BACK” 
DEAR FOREST AND STREAM: 
ON a beautiful morning toward the 
end of May, when all nature was 
_ teeming with life, I paddled across the 
Misson Lake in the fresh coolness of 
the early hours and landed at the edge 
of a clearing full of tall stumps and 
shrubbery. “Misson” is a small lake 
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