Rensselaer Republican, Volume 14, Number 2, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 September 1881 — Wise as a Serpent. [ARTICLE]

Wise as a Serpent.

Indianapolis News. The wisdom and cunning of the serpent race have been affirmed by every generation, and no snake story has been too wonderful to record. The following incident has the double advantage of being true and of further showing the intelligence of the snake. Dr. Minnick of the surgical institute was one day last we£k called to Carlisle, Indiana, to attend upon his niece, Mrs. John Sproatt, whose serious sickness arote from peculiar circumstances. A favorite canary bird, whose cage hung on the wall .about five feet from the floor, was seen to be quivering as if under some great excitement. Thinking the bird was afraid Of the cat, Mr. Sproatt hung the cage two feet higher on the newly.made and well plastered wall, but the next day the bird shook again as if in mortal terror. Suddenly it g'ave a loud cry, and upon examination a snake was seen to have bored its way through the plastering at the exact spot opposite the perch of the bird and to have seized the little songster in a death grip. When the snake had been killed and drawn through into the room a small hole was also found where the cage tint bung, in the same relative position to the- perch. How the snake was able to locate the exact I'osi ion of the bird must be attributed to serpentine instinct and accurate hearing, or it must have seen the bird from long range iu the yard and calculated with mathematical precision the exact spot where the bird sat The eptire circumstance of the bird’s “taking off” so shocked Mrs. Sproatt that she was obHged to take her bed, where she lies critically ill.