hole, and a person seizes hold of its tail, it will sometimes twist itself to pieces*..

The Black Snake is sometimes bold enough to attack a man, and not to depart before it has received a smartstrokefrom a stick, or whatever other weapon he may chance to have in his hand. When it overtakes a person who has endeavoured to escape (not having had courage enough to oppose it), it is said to wind itself round his legs in such a manner as to throw him down, and then to bite him several times in the leg, or wherever it can lay hold of, and run off again.

During professor Kalm's residence at New York, Doctor Colden told him, that in the spring of 1748, he had several workmen at his country-seat, and among them one just arrived from Europe, who, of course, knew but little of the qualities of the Black Snake. The other workmen, who observed a male and female lying together, engaged their new companion to kill one of them. He accordingly approached them with a stick in his hand: this the male observed, and made towards him. The man little expected to find such courage in the reptile, and, flinging away his stick, ran off as fast as he was able. The snake pursued, overtook him, and twisting several times round his legs threw him down, and almost frightened the poor fellow out of his senses. He could not rid himself of the snake without cutting it through in two or three places with a knife. The other workmen laughed heartily at the incident without ever offering to help their companion, looking upon the whole affair only as a scene of the highest amusement.

*Brickell, 153.

is

This snake, which is harmless except in the spring, very greedy of milk, and it is difficult to keep it out when once it is accustomed to get into a cellar where milk is kept. It has been seen eating milk out of the same dish with children without biting them, though they often gave it blows with their spoons upon the head, when it was too greedy.

It is said to be found extremely useful in America in clearing houses of rats, which it pursues with wonderful agility even to the very roofs of barns and out-houses; for which good services it is cherished by the generality of the Americans. It is also said that it will destroy the rattlesnake by twisting round it, whipping it to death, and then swallowing it. It is so swift that there is no escaping its pursuit, but its bite has no more effect than a scratch with a pin. All the mischief this species does is to the farmers' wives; for it will skim the milk-pans of the cream, and rob the hen-roosts of all the eggs. It is not very uncommon to find it coiled up in a nest under the sitting hen*.

The following description of a contest between the Black Snake, and another species, is extracted from the Letters of an American Farmer: "One of my constant walks when I am at leisure (says this gentleman) is in my lowlands, where I have the pleasure of seeing my cattle, horses, and colts. Exuberant grass replenishes all my fields, the best representative of our wealth: in the middle of that tract, I have cut a ditch eight feet wide: on each

Catesby, ii. 48. Brickell, 153. Penn. Arct. Zool: ii. 343.

side of this I carefully sow every year some grains of hemp, which rise to the height of fifteen feet, so strong and full of limbs, as to resemble young trees: I once ascended one of them four feet above the ground. These produce natural arbours, rendered often still more compact by the assistance of an annual creeping plant, which we call a vine, that never fails to entwine itself among the branches, and always produces a very desirable shade. As I was one day sitting, solitary and pensive, in this primitive arbour, my attention was engaged by a strange sort of rustling noise, at some paces distance. I looked all around without distinguishing any thing, until I climbed up one of my great hemp-stalks; when, to' my astonishment, I beheld two snakes of considerable length, the one pursuing the other with great celerity through a hemp stubble field. The aggressor was of the black kind, six feet long; the fugitive was a water snake, nearly of equal dimensions. They soon met, and, in the fury of their first encounter, appeared in an instant firmly twisted together; and whilst their united tails beat the ground, they mutually tried with open jaws to lacerate each other. What a fell aspect did they present! Their heads were compressed to a very small size, their eyes flashed fire; and after this conflict had lasted about five minutes, the second found means to disengage itself from the first, and hurried toward the ditch. Its antagonist instantly assumed a new posture, and half creeping, half erect, with a majestic mien, overtook and attacked the other again, which placed itself in a similar attitude, and prepared to resist.

The scene was uncommon, and beautiful, for thus opposed they fought with their jaws, biting each other with the utmost rage; but notwithstanding this appearance of mutual courage and fury, the water snake still seemed desirous of retreating towards the ditch, its natural element. This was no sooner perceived by the keen-eyed black one, than, twisting its tail twice round a stalk of hemp, and seizing its adversary by the throat, not by means of its jaws, but by twisting its own neck twice round that of the water snake, he pulled it back from the ditch. To prevent a defeat, the latter took hold likewise of a stalk on the bank, and, by the acquisition of that point of resistance, became a match for his fierce antagonist. Strange was this to behold: two great snakes strongly adhering to the ground, mutually fastened together by means of the writhings which lashed them to each other, and stretched at their full length, they pulled, but pulled in vain; and in the moments of greatest exertion that part of their bodies which was entwined, seemed extremely small, while the rest appeared inflated, and now and then convulsed with strong undulations rapidly following each other. Their eyes appeared on fire, and ready to start out of their heads. At one time the conflict seemed decided; the water-snake bent itself into great folds, and by that operation rendered the other more than commonly outstretched; the next minute the new struggles of the black one gained an unexpected superiority, it acquired two great folds likewise, which necessarily extended the body of its adversary in proportion as it had contracted its own. These efforts

were alternate,victory seemed doubtful,inclining sometimes to one side, sometimes to the other; until at last the stalk to which the black snake was fastened, suddenly gave way, and, in consequence of this accident, they both plunged into the ditch. The water did not extinguish their vindictive rage, for by their agitations I could still trace, though I could not distinguish, their attacks. They soon re-appeared on the surface, twisted together, as in their first onset: but the black snake seemed to retain its wonted superiority; for its head was exactly fixed above that of the other, which it incessantly pressed down under the water, until it was stifled, and sunk. The victor no sooner perceived its enemy incapable of further resistance, than, abandoning it to the current, it returned to the shore and disappeared."