62 STATEN ISLAND INSTITUTE OF ARTS AND SCIENCES 
salt hay to eat lunch. My companion had settled down to an easy 
position, when he exclaimed, and looking up I saw quite a large 
blacksnake going across the open and into the huckleberry bushes 
beyond. The snake had been in the hay and had been sat on, so 
it decided to seek a safer place where no man could sit on him. 
The latest seasonal date that I ever found a blacksnake on the 
island was on Thanksgiving Day, November 24, 1887, when one 
was found dead near the highest point. It was about 5 it. in 
length. The next latest date was on November 22, 1890, when 
one about 5 ft. in length, that had been shot, was found near the 
central part of the island. 
On July 12, 1891, in the woods between Richmond and the 
present Oakwood, a blacksnake came from the hillside toward me, 
but it was rushing through the bushes and small trees to the 
thicker growth of a swamp and was willing to come thus near to 
finally attain a place of greater safety, which it accomplished. 
It has seemed to the writer that blacksnakes sometimes get killed 
because they do not practice the proverbial wisdom of serpents but 
stay near their enemies when they should seek safety in flight. 
On April 16, 1897, near Richmond, two such snakes were found 
sunning themselves. They vibrated their tails rapidly when ap- 
proached, and one of them, that was near a small pond, was very 
reluctant about entering the water to escape, and as it was, he only 
wet himself a little bit, simply skirted the pond. 
On May 30, 1897, on Ketchum’s hill back of Richmond, we 
surprised a blacksnake in a small clump of bushes. The snake 
was afraid to leave the bushes and cross the open ground. When 
pursued he would climb several feet from the ground, probably to 
escape notice. Once I tossed him out on the open grass, but he 
quickly returned. When caught by the neck and carried to the 
open ground and started down the hill, he made the usual black- 
snake speed. 
That a blacksnake cannot readily detect danger, though he 
touches almost everything he comes to with his tongue, is evinced 
