The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-11-29
THE FINE ART OF
 SNAKE CATCHING
Not Considered Particularly Hazard ous by the Expert With
 Nerve.

secure, not because of their scarcity but because of the difficulties of penetrating the almost impossible swamps where in the very heart of the boggy thicket, the hnest and best specimens hold court.
 The moccasin snake hunter Is provided wlth long pole rigged with a wire loop on -the end, the same operated from the handle-end of the contrivapce. Armed with this and his snalebag the man entera the swamp. jumping from bog to bog and from tree root to tree root, Tn danger or finding his progress cut of at any moment and In danger of losing his bear ings and his way out. The air is heavy the sunlight is excluded by the forest of tropical grass and trees and swamp shrub bery. But the hunter presses on until in the midst of his grounds, when he begins to work.
 Lying on a bog. coiled and ready to strike. eyes riveted on the man, the moe casin lies motioniess. without sign of life, awaiting stea1thily the moment to get in his fatal bite. The hunter ad- vances cautiously. extending the loop end of his snare. The viper never takes its eyes off the man. Unmindful of the ap- preaching stick. 1t glares at its intended victim until with a quick and accurate movement the wire loop has been slipped over the creatures head and drawn taut. reptile until 1t Is grasped behind the head. like its brother. the rattler, and is slipped into a snake bag.
 Raymond L. Ditmars. curator of the reptile house in the New York Geological Park. and his assistant, William Snyder caught most of the moccasins on exhibi- tion in the park. Together the men ven- tured into the Black Swamps of Southern Georgia, where they climbed and flound- cred among the bogs for eighteen hours, dropping to the ground exhausted supon regaining a foothold, but with them they had no less than sixty splendid speci- mems of cotton-mouth moccasins, among the finest ever captured by similar cam paign of snake hunters.
 Speaking of hunting an individual spec linen. and of never killing a snake unless absolutely necessary, MT. Ditmars tells a story of hunt after famous old rattle snake near a town in Central North Car olina. "A friend told me of a famous old rattler in a little settlement off some where in no-mans land in North Carolina, and decided to go down there and cap ture the old chap during a vacation" MT. Ditmars said. Upon arriving We found about every native in town acquainted with the trail. if not the personality of the reptile; in fact, they knew the snake so well that they had him named. Old Dave they called him. Mornings when the farmers drove to town and saw the trail in the dust in the road they'd say, Well, Old Dave has been around again.
 The Hunt for "Dave."
 q went out hunting for Dave the first morning, and, sure enough. he must have been a 'whopper,' for his track measured easily four inches wide. And was that of the old rattler, for the dust was fine, and made out that the snake had crawled in almost a perfectly straight line. one of the pecularities of a rattlesnake train. most snakes travelling in curves. waited that night and till the moon was high, but not a sign of the snake was there. Next night 1 hunted with the same result and likewise a third night. But the fourth morning, the last could put in hunting Dave, I saw his tracks across the road, and could tell he had come out of his woods into the meadow grass to hunt. and that, before long, in all probability, he would go home. I waited an hour, and another, and still another, and was about to give up for want of time when the squeal of a rabbit was heard. and the next instant. one of these little fellows. frightened to death, dart ed across the road pursued by Old Dave I gave chase, and the race became an affair between the rattler and myself He was on the run, and, unfortunately, never stopped to light me- but headed for an old field stone wall, had a native with a. gun with me, and might 1 wanted to. But it was a fair fight, and I lost, and Dave got away among the stone from which no amount of stone pulling would bring him. But I'll go down there again some day and bring the fine old fellow home.''
 Among the extraordinarily dangerous sankes to catch in India, Is the cobra and its many species. A sa rule, the East Indian catches his snakes in a simple and rather cruel manner. Pro- vided with long-handled and deep nets. the natives surround a huge tract of grass and set fire to it. The flames spread with lightning rapidlty, and all sorts of small game is burned before it has time to escape. Yet much escapes. and as the snakes flee in panic and bob out of the threatened field they are notted and placed in boxes ready for shipment to various parts of the country where they are exhibited
 A far more interesting way of catching these deadly reptiles is that employed bv the snake charmers. Whether another species of snake would be influenced by the strains of music is not known but if has been seen repeatedly by most credi- Die authorities that the Hindoo can, and uoes' charm the cobra simply by playing 70 It from sort of rough flute or fife The following incident happened in Rom pay where an English civilian found a huge cobra quartered in dried-uu clstern The cistern with the snake in 1t was practically useless, and 1t was inn possible to dilodge the tenant unless by visit below. for he had crawled among the rock lining of the basin, and only the tip of his tail was visible. srhe Iand- lord was advised to send for native snake charmer, and the white-turbaned