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Title
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Forest Reserve, Thomas County
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Date
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1911
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Creator
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Frank Shoemaker
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Description
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Frank Shoemaker - Omaha, Lincoln, and Nebraska Narratives
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Identifier
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321301
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Transcription
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3 The latter part of the drama has been enacted within twenty-four inches of my eyes. Plainly, the affair had gone far enough; so as the snake poised for its pounce, I grabbed it by the neck- bull-snakes being, of course, entirely harmless except to little fellows like vireos. I won by a split second, but sufficiently. After withdrawing a short distance and viewing the family reunion of the vireos I went on my way- and the bull-snake went with me. The vireos followed for a time, saying uncomplimentary things- probably presumably to the snake; but the this point was not cleared up. It seems probable that snakes have little re er perception of form except as it is defined by movement. If a moving object be large, it is a good thing to get away from, just for luck; whereas if it be small it may be good to ear, and at any rate is worth following up, since lack of size argues at least a relative lack of danger. These observations are made here because of their bearing on the incident of the vireo's nest. There is not a shadow of likelihood that the snake saw the nest from the ground and went up after it. The behavior of this particular snake when going out upon the branch where the nest was located, was not at all indicative of purpose. It even tested the strength of the weeds when it encountered their tops, evidently with the intent of using them to reach the ground; a course abandoned when the weeds proved too weak to support the snake's weight. Not until it actually touched the nest is it at all probably that it the snake knew of its proximity. Instinct leads the snake to hunt in likely places, but it is highly probable that the first perception of the success of such hunting is through tactile and not through visual sense.
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Rights
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To inquire about usage, please contact Archives & Special Collections, University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries. These images are for educational use only. Not all images are available for publication.
