Show zoo man picks snakes as best pets birds and cats and dogs and even fish may be all right for pets says harry gardiner of the detroit zoological park staff but it if I 1 were choos ing a pet id pick a snake although for a number of years gardiner acred as general superintendent of the bird house at the zoo snakes have always held arst place pince to in his affections says the detroit news Gar gardinere gardiners diners birst choice in selecting a reptilian pet would be a nice king snake one of these fellows he declares would lie in your lap all day if you wanted it to and it was never known to hurt anybody strangely enough this doelle docile snake recommended as a first class pet Is the same one that rattlers copper heads and water moccasins in some ot of our southern states find such a formidable enemy although the king snake Is not poisonous itself it Is immune to the poisons of other snakes shakes and fre attacks and kills any of those lust just mentioned should this herpetologist be forced to fall back on a local species of snake in lit picking eking out a pet he be might take a pilot black blach snake a to ox snake a milk snake or even it a hog nosed snake or a purr puff adder there Is no reason why the latter should not make a good pet he says it Is absolutely harm less in spite ot of its pretentious blustering and evil appearance in addition to making good pets all of these varieties and many others are valuable allies of the farmer gardiner points out because they are responsible for the i lip destruction of great quantities of held mice for this teason he hopes that the conservation department part ment will some day see it fit to protect harmless snakes snake in the same manner that it now protects many other wild creatures |