Erowth drew me into a strange commas Wrthe hills the other' day-<-.and before T'eourd ore cide whether or not they were migrating Wrens almost trod on n snake parily car ay for warm spot 1 poked it with my ticks whet it Fardly "moved, "out a second poke. im' the wie mad' if straighten out and sither slowly. ito sit below the rocks! when T saw It helena out I realized it war about two Yoet long nea fad the typical head of the Wiperciike Ant iron on a neck much narrower than it stow body—and Peon only conclude that I wes what Nerpetalogists call "Aotiatrodon Blomhoyt me scotia, oF the poisonous picviper, Why did T hot Kilt when Thad the chance? 1 can only something interesting 20 that I gould writes rep that Fbaite fas being twats ory about it. Snake. stories are's0 rare' How: Bays, 38 we se 20 few of them, and fam ed Of all the old stonen about golfers king. heey bunkers The best snake Sty T haves heeer for some time came froma guile seri novel J which the native (African) hunter daisd have found Woop. Snakes?" these snakes allow their tails and bow! rapidly. down Then there, was the recent. ease of Dorothy Parker in "Americ, pestered by an inguialvg fellow-passenger with stupid questions heally he saked her what she was carrying ima coved Basket and she tod him it was. Mongosses man knowing his Kipling) asked. if she was troubled with snakes: she replied "No: it's for brother who suffers from. D-Tvs": "but those are imaginary snakes" said the garrulous to which Dorothy replied, "Yes, and it fe that kind of a Mongoose." But T can assure y that_my Agkistrodon was Hot Weihaiwei,—Sept, 3—I have just read a most interesting article about ants in my Shanghai paper and, with the exception of "irrigation in the desert® for the purpose of growing fungus, I think T can confirm every statement. made from experience here. Incidentally, T_ believe that the tiny fungus, more like a mould to our eves, if not known outside ants' nests... "and T have never seen it named. Another. point, concerning the keeping of aphids as "cows, came to my notice from the usually uninspiring source of a Government Trade" Report: it appears that the wingless aphids are carried by ants to the cotton crops to graze on the young eaves, and are taken back to shelter when rain to crops is heavy, and T this process going i cotton fields. Here the ants roam the country in countless billions, but seldom enter houses: the only annoyance they give is by raising heaps of dry mud on the lawns, like miniature mole-hills which have to be swept daily: half a dozen colonies ina lawn can raise (literally) pounds of mud inside 24 hours when they are busy making subterranean chambers for hatching eggs, storing food, etc, and it is most interesting to note the different patterns which the "engineers-in-charge" use for these mud dumps. The favourite pattern is simple pyramid, curved on one se, which looks exactly like' the dumps from china clay pits on the Cornish moors (dumps which are entirely due fo the demand for paper just as this note is printed on): other ant-engineers prefer a circular dump which entirely surrounds the central nasi-hole (can this be for protection?): others again build a series of complete indica! towers 2 four inches high, joined eSineval castle. Tes all very. bewigering: Tittle walls, ving the ellest
Sha. really looks ay st the Creator was ex: Devimenting' befure He chose. the human form Bike basis of the Drains of this world ess.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.