ently afraid to encounter such a terrible
antagonist, the weasel, after a while, ceased its hostile
demonstrations; and, turning to one side, bounded off into the woods.

"The reptile now leisurely uncoiled the upper half of his body; and,
stretching out his neck toward the squirrel, prepared to swallow it. He
drew the animal out to its full length along the ground, so that its
head lay towards him. He evidently purposed swallowing the head first--
in order to take it `with the grain'--and he commenced lubricating it
with the saliva that ran from his forked tongue.

"While we sat watching this curious operation, our attention was
attracted to a movement in the leaves over the spot where the snake lay.
Directly above him, at a height of twenty or more feet, a huge _liana_,
of the trumpet species, stretched across from tree to tree. It was full
as thick as a man's arm, and covered with green leaves and large crimson
cuneiform blossoms, such as belonged to itself. There were other
blossoms mingling with these, for still other parasites--smaller ones--
were twined around it; and we could distinguish the beautiful star-like
flowers of the cypress vine. Among these an object was in motion--a
living object--a body--the body of a great snake, nearly as thick as the
liana itself.

"Another rattlesnake! No; the rattlesnake is _not a tree-climber_,--it
could not be that. Besides, the colour of the one upon the vine was
entirely different. It was of a uniform black all over--smooth and
glittering. It was the _black_ snake then--the `constrictor' of the
north.

"When we first noticed it, it was wound upon the liana in spiral rings,
like the worm of a gigantic screw. We saw that it was slowly gliding
downward--for the vine tended diagonally from tree to tree, and its
lowest end impinged upon the trunk of the magnolia, about twenty feet
from the ground.

"On reaching this point, the snake gradually drew its rings closer
together--until they appeared to touch each other, lapping the liana.
It then commenced unwinding itself, by the head, which was slowly
circled backward around the vine--still, however, creasing closely along
it. After a sufficient number of evolutions, the rings had completely
disappeared--with the exception of one or two near the tail--and the
reptile lay doubled along the liana. These manoeuvres were executed
silently and with great caution; and it now seemed to pause, and survey
what was going on