Davis: Nores ON STATEN ISLAND BLACKSNAKES 63 
from the following: on August 12, 1899, I sat by a stack of salt 
hay on the edge of Old Place meadow, when a large, glossy black- 
snake came slowly toward me and rested his head on my foot. 
There he stayed for a time, or until I moved slightly, perhaps it 
was only my eyes, when he made off into the bushes. 
The earliest seasonal date for the finding of a blacksnake on the 
island by the writer was March 15, 1903, when a large dull-colored 
individual was discovered near Richmond. It was sluggish, but 
after being tickled with a straw decided to seek safety in the 
bushes. 
On October 15, 1904, a dead blacksnake was found in Reed’s 
valley. It was being devoured by burying beetles. 
Four blacksnakes were observed sunning themselves at Great 
Kill, on April 18, 1909, one of which was captured. ‘This last was 
placed in the lane and its photograph taken. During these pro- 
ceedings it was quiet, but when James P. Chapin picked it up to 
place it in a pile of stones, so that it would be safe, the snake tried 
to bite him. | 
On May 16, 1909, we found a blacksnake near Great Kill that 
fought us when disturbed, and once seized me by the trousers leg, 
its little teeth sticking into the cloth. What it really wished to 
do was to get under a nearby log, which we permitted after taking 
its photograph. I have several times found blacksnakes under the 
bark of dead trees, and once at Tuckerton, New Jersey, Mr. How- 
ard H. Cleaves and I found one under a log. It was difficult to 
keep it away from its home, for though at first it made off it came 
back directly and went under the log, though we stood close by. 
The late John A. Grossbeck, entomologist in charge of the 
Lepidoptera in the American Museum of Natural History, resided 
in the Clove Valley in 1913, and on the morning of June 29 of 
that year, he heard a family of brown thrashers, which had a nest 
near his home, making a considerable noise, and upon investigation 
he disturbed a blacksnake, which dropped from the small tree 
standing among the bushes, with one of the young thrashers in its 
