INSECTS AND


REPTILES.


which the female deposits in large numbers in the muddy
recesses of the shores of their haunts. She digs out a spa-
cious hole, and depositing the eggs-several hundreds in
number-at one time, proceeds to cover them, and when
she has erected a stout earthwork over them her maternal
duties are entirely finished with that brood. After a
lengthy period (the precise time is variously given by dif-
ferent authorities) the little 'gators come forth, and, with
unerring instinct, make a direct line, over all obstacles, to
the water; while, with equally unerring but cannibalistic
instinct, the big alligators that may happen to be in the
vicinity at once proceed to devour the little ones.
 Of snakes there are but ten or eleven species in Florida,
 and only five of these are poisonous: the rattlesnake, the
 cotton-mouthed moccasin, the water-moccisin, and two
 kinds of adders. The king-snake, the bull or gopher snake,
 the black snake, the coach-whip, and the'common ground-
 snake, are the harmless species. Of these last mentioned,
 two kinds-the black and the king snakes-are the friends
 of humankind, for they wage relentless and usually vic-
 torious warfare upon all others of their loathsome species.
 But, after all, there are very few snakes in Florida, and
they are rarely found save in dense undergrowth or in sel-
dom-visited regions.. I have traveled over many portions
of the State, and been much in the woods and underbrush
in South Florida, and I never saw a deadly snake; in fact,
I saw but one coach-whip and five or six black snakes.
Nor have I met anybody that has seen more than a very
few deadly snakes. To see two or three in a residence of
half a dozen years seems to be about the average. Their
scarcity is principally due to the numerous hogs, deer, owls,
hawks, coons, and skunks, all of which are deadly enemies


to them, and to th
the underbrush of


e extensive fires that annually burn over
large tracts of land.


There is also a species of centiped that is poisonous, its