Evening star., 1902-08-23

nave ever fondled. IL / omen his care On a
colo cay, as soon as he sees my hand o
the glass undoing the fastenings he gides
! gently over TO meet Il. / leave my hand
| there and out he winds softly and slowly
! up my arm 20 the shoulder. When his cold
| tongue points touch my warm throat he
| gilaes around and around my neck until
/ ne gets himself comfortably settled. and
| 'here he stays enjoying the heat. often
Nheh ne does this l go back 10 my chair
ana allow him TO stay so coiled for half
| an hour or longer Sometimes. indeed
when am reading forget that he is there
| Lhe other day l shocked calle- by going
| 10 the door, oblivioUs Of the kind of cravat
! l had on.
Racing After Food.
Lately my visitors have all learned 10
ask me before leaving 10 ''p.ease feed the
black snake" because he will follow me
for his food. II l draw away the glass
! slide from the front Of his cage and hold
up a garter snake wiSgling by the tail.
he will glide out of his cage and chase me
through the house to get it,
Few weeks ago he shot out with such
force that / may almost say that he leaned
from his cage out on the floor of the snake
room, pursuing me to the door. and thence
1 INTO the hallway / passed out on the stoop
and he followed vigorously and kent up
the pursuit after me down the steps outside
over the short grass in front. and then
back again into the house. When l went
lAltp Ailt SNAKE room ne sun KEPT AttGr me.
then got up on chair. and up he got too.
and tried TO climb up my legs: but he was
unable TO do this one OF my visitors
handed me long stick, which ! held with
my LETT hand. one end of il resting the
chair. He climbed it TO my shoulder But
he did not yet get the garter snake, for L
held ii in my right hand, away up towards
the ceiling This made no difference to
him. he climbed up my arm and caught It
! by the head. l let him have it, for l think
he deserved it.
on many occasions he has followed me
up a ladder TO the housetop. over the roof
and down again. Frequently during this
year, he has followed me out of the house
and in again without making any attempt
TO escape Nor viii he try to hide away I'm
holes when let loose in the room. but will
spend his time gliding around. searching
for prey or lie coiled in the sun. near the
stove. if the weather be cold.
One day in August | took him outside
and laid him on the short grass TO hask
in the sun. hoping that he would catch
some birds which | saw hopping about
there. He saw the birds and stayed watch
ing for them to come closer. but they were
wary, and took care to give him a wide
berth. Then | took some frogs and stay
ing concealed myself, flung the frogs over
to him. He them they came sail
ing through the air and caught them as
they landed on the ground close 10y him
only two frogs out of six having had time
to give a second jump. Really no dog
was ever so quick to catch rats.
Now mark well that in all this there was
no sign of returning wildness: never would
he object I'm the least to my picking him up.
either In the house or outside in the open
on the bare ground or short grass.
Reverts to Savagery.
But this black snake, so tame and gentle,
eating from my hands and following me
for food, my pet for nearly five years. gave
me very great surprise. One day / de-
termined to give him outing. so l took
him with me up in Westchester county.
On river bank, sloping gently up from
the water, there was a nice stretch OF
smooth grass, and beyond that SOM rocks
and thicket Of bushes and b yond these
again some trees. l put out the blacksnake
on the smooth sward, close tD where / re-
clined, and there he lay baskng i'm the sun.
When he felt sufficiently warm n began to
glide gently around, so | stood up to watch
him. After a time he went slowly toward
the bushes and then he stopped. bIt with
his head raised, as If surveying them. Now
at any time until then | could have ap-
preached him and picked him up at will.
But what did he do when | made "A move to
take him, now thar he was on the edge OF
the bushes? He made dash for liberty,
quick that in an instant he was nowhere
to be seen. Ny heart beat fast, for
thought that | should see him no more. But
/ perceived that the bushes whore he was
were surrounded on every side by short
grass, except one little neck which joined
the more extensive growth beyond. making
the copse where he had hidden a sort OF
peninsula Of bushes. / placed some boys
that were there as pCkets about a yard
apart across the isthmus. to that he
didn't pass them and get into The more ex-
tensive brushwOOd near the trees. Then L
went myself into the peninsula 10 look for
him. / feared that he might have found a
hole and gone into it: but no, there he was.
coled by some rocks under the thickest
bushes; but he was not my tame black
snake any more. He an angry. savage
Nihra his tail against the
leaves and biting toward my hands as L
stopped to catch him. My delight at find
ing him was not half so great my aston
ishment at this sudden chang u wldness.
I reached my hand out quickly and took
hold of him. and ! touched him all the
fierceness seemed to go out Of him. except
that he wanted willfully to go again on the
ground.
Became Tame Again.
When got home that evening h followed
me as usual for a garter snake and glid-
cd about my room, al gentle and tame as II
he had not been wild, fighting thing few
hours before in the bushes in Wostchester.
Since then have tried him many times,
and always with the same result. namely,
that when he can hide among rocks and
bushes he becomes instantly wild again.
Other tame snakes | have tried in the
same way: and I find that the tame cop
perhead which | have had since "a acts
precisely the biacksnake did, becoming
instantly wild under the same clrcum-
STAGES. So do the -NeXas bull snake. the
garter snake. the hog-nosed snake. the wa
tersnake and the Georgia corn snake. And
with all these the same rule holds true that
they become tame again just as suddenly
when brought into the house among their
old surroundings.
Now, whenever my blacksnake gets away
in the house, among boxes or books or
heaps of paper. he never shows any change
in his demeanor; so ii is perfectly evident
that the memory of his original free life IN
the woods has remained alive for at least
four years; because, in all that time, he had
never once been allowed to reflect his recol-
lection among the bushes as he did In West
chester.
A reasonable conclusion to draw from all
/ have written here is that snakes are very
slow to get new ideas and are very ten
acious OF old ones.
Viscount Cole, Coal Stoker.
From the London Daily Graphic.