v21279 Snake Coiled Around Its Eggs (Pine or Bull Snake)

Here is another harmless snake. It is often more than six feet long, and is found in sandy pine woods. Its skin is whitish in color with black spots on the head and large brown blotches edged with black on the body. Did you ever walk in the woods and find a cast-off snake skin near a stone? About three times a year this snake crawls into some hole or crevice which is so small that its skin is caught and held. The snake then glides out of its old skin and leaves it.

This snake, like the blacksnake, lays eggs in warm dust, and leaves them to be hatched by the sun. The eggs have a covering something like kid (sic) Sometimes this snake feeds on birds and birds’ eggs but usually on mice and rats.

Copyright The Keystone View Co.

w82871 American Elks

The elk lives in the high mountains of the West. He is a big cousin of the reindeer. How strong he looks. His antlers are like the branches of a tree.

The elk loses his antlers at the end of every winter. It takes a few months for them to grow again. While his antlers are growing he hides away, high in the mountains.

The mother elk has no antlers. She stays down in the valley with the baby. Sometimes she has twin babies. When the father’s antlers have become hard and strong at the end of the summer he comes back to his family. He is ready to protect them and to fight for them.

When winter comes the elk live together in a band. The strongest of them becomes the leader. He fights any of the smaller or weaker ones who may want to take his place from him. When he gets angry the elk makes a noise that sounds like a trumpet. Have you ever heard a boy scout blow his bugle? The elk is caller a bugler because his noise sounds like that.

Before the white men came to live in this country the elk could be found almost anywhere. But the hunters frightened these animals away from their old homes. Now they can only be found living in the forests of the Rocky Mountains.

Copyright The Keystone View Co.

.8283 'Possum Hunting

The funny little animal hanging by its tail is Mr. ‘Possum. Mrs. ‘Possum is sitting up on the branch.

When Jack and Tom went out to feed the chickens they found some queer little tracks in the snow. Father said they were opossum tracks. He told the boys to take Rover with them and trail the opossum.

Rover ran ahead of the boys. As he ran he kept his nose to the ground and sniffed. Soon the boys saw him stop under a tree. He ran around and around the tree. He barked and barked. When Jack and Tom came up to the tree they saw Mr. Mrs. ‘Possum. Rover had chased them up into the tree.

Mr. ‘Possum is playing dead. He thinks the boys and the dog will go away by and by.

Mrs. ‘Possum has a large pocket in which she can carry her babies. Sometimes when she goes walking she has some of the babies on her back and some in the big pocket.

In the spring the opossum steals the eggs from the birds’ nests. Sometimes he eats the young birds, too. Sometimes he breaks into the hen house and kills young chicks or steals eggs. That is why the farmer boys hunt the opossum.

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v21214 Baby Monkey With Its Mother In The Treetop

The baby monkey likes to be cuddled. Even when quite large it will cry when it is turned away without the petting it wants. A baby monkey is always with its mother. If she climbs a tree she takes the little one along, for the baby clings so closely that she cannot get rid of it. The monkey mother does not want to be separated from her baby.

The orang mother has no special home. But when night comes she makes a soft bed of twigs for her baby. She breaks off branches and places them across other branches of the tree. The bed is made low down in the tree. People who have watched say that if it rains a big leaf is used for a cover.

The baby monkey does not like to sleep alone. In the zoo even a young gorilla, the largest of the monkey tribe, cries if it is made to sleep in a room alone.

Some monkeys are very playful when they are young. They slide down hill or roll over and over in the grass. They play jokes on each other, or slyly pull the tail of some old grandfather monkey.

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v8265 Seagulls in San Francisco Bay

Here you are on the deck of a ferryboat that is crossing San Francisco Harbor. Do you know another place where ferryboats cross a harbor? See the sea gulls that are following the boat. The boat has left a foamy track on the water that is called a wake. Do you know why the gulls are following the boat? They are looking for something to eat. They can live on the fish they catch but they have learned to like our food, too.

Sea gulls are very strong birds. They can fly for days without resting. They are beautiful to watch as they swoop down to skim something from the water. But they are very noisy, too.

Gulls make their nests of grass, moss and seaweed on rocky cliff. Their eggs are light brownish spotted with chocolate color. They do not hatch more than three in one brood.

Copyright The Keystone View Co.