she did not take them inside of her, for she has no other way of providing for their safety; but, by the mutual instinct of all aboard," she can at once proceed on her travels with her family; for a snake is an animal that lives altogether in the open, on sometimes very rough ground, and only retires to hidden | places on the approach of cold weather to hybernate."

In cutting open the black-snake mentioned, which was fully three feet long, I found that the string of eggs, say fifteen in number, would measure about fifteen inches in all, and were in a chamber of much greater height and width than was necessary to hold them-something apparently distinct from the stomach proper, and doubtless the receptacle for the young after being hatched outside, and which could be greatly expanded, according to the nature of snakes. Since we know that life is originated and maintained in an egg, and in a womb containing sometimes a dozen of young, it can be easily imagined that the young of a snake can have air supplied to them, tem

porarily at least, when confined in the way described, doubtless by a special provision of nature to that end. Perhaps they are even nourished in the same manner, for it cannot be imagined that a tiny creature can be fed in the gross way of the old one, which has no means for tearing and dividing its prey among its progeny. And this gives rise to the questions, how and on what new - born and young snakes are nourished, when not in a state of captivity?

It would be singular, indeed, if this peculiarity of snakes is not described in treatises on the natural history of the animal. I did not see it noticed in the long article in the Encyclopædia Britannica, on a hasty glance I gave it. To people inclined to doubt the facts given, I would say-how can they find eggs that are hatched outside of the animal that laid them, returning to the inside of the same animal in the shape of complete creatures, that can help themselves in any way, excepting only what a larger growth would enable them to do, unless they entered it by the mouth?

parous, they are viviparous also, hatching their young within their bellies, and then bringing them forth"; perhaps drawing his conclusion from the phenomenon mentioned, and absolutely ignoring the testimony of people who had seen vipers swallow their young. It would be a curiosity in nature to find an animal that hatched an unlaid egg inside of itself; so great a curiosity as at once to be rejected unless it could be supported by evidence. Assuming, however, that the viper did it, we could understand how each of the young was nourished when inside of its own egg; but how would they be fed, or even kept alive, after leaving the eggs and entering and perhaps running about the abdomen at large? And why should snakes at least seven inches long, emerging from eggs one-seventh that length, be found unborn when they proved themselves so knowing on being forced to the light of day? Do unborn animals of any kind act in that way? And how did eggs that would yield snakes four-and-a-half or five inches long when hatched, produce ones from two-and-a-half to three inches longer before being born? And if they were born inside, what had become of the shells or rather coverings of the eggs? If they had been voided, why should not the young which they contained have followed in the same direction, and at the same time? White, by his own admission, knew little or nothing of the matter, and paid no regard to what others testified to of their own knowledge as to the swallowing of the young. He had most probably seen the snake that contained the eggs and killed the one himself containing the young, and concluded that therefore these young must have been hatched inside.*

*It is surprising that White should have commented on this subject so superficially and unsatisfactorily, after contemplating the eggs and the young

It must therefore be held that the viper, like all animals producing eggs, is really an oviparous one, bringing forth her young like other. serpents of her kind-that is, lays eggs to be hatched by the elements, and discharges her maternal duties like them by taking them inside of her on occasions, unless it can be proved otherwise by evidence that cannot be controverted. I of course mean when the animal is in her natural state and not in captivity, which would probably somewhat modify her instincts and habits. How could it be known that the eggs of vipers are hatched inside unless noticed at the time of birth, when the young and the substance that covered them emerged together, or the one (and which one?) before the other, and in the same direction? And how could it be learned that the eggs increase in maturity inside unless various vipers containing eggs are killed during the season, and a comparison be made as to their respective conditions? We would have then to ascertain where the bursting of the egg takes place-that is, inside or outside of the animal. If it takes place outside, no matter how shortly after the egg is laid, then is the viper an oviparous animal; and in that case how could we find vipers inside like those described by White, and as can be found any summer in England? Let a viper containing young, as described by White, be killed and submitted to properly qualified scientific men for inspection, and they would doubtless soon settle the question whether the young were unborn or had entered the mother by the mouth. If they found the young and the coverings of the eggs, they could say that they had been hatched inside; but if they found the young only, how

could they say that they had been so hatched, and not taken in at the mouth, in common with all the American snakes, so far as known? Thereafter they could examine the anatomy of both, and if they found both alike, what reason could they have for saying that the viper did not, and could not, swallow her young, like the American serpents, whether the bursting of the egg took place at the time of birth, or before it, or after it had been laid? Being both snakes, and conceiving eggs in the same way, with the young more or less developed in them when laid (as laid they must be), it must be held, as I have just said, that vipers are not only oviparous, but "swallowers," unless it can be proved that they are neither, which would be an exceedingly difficult if not impossible matter to do, for the most that could be said would be that it was not known, which would only prove ignorance in regard to the subject.

So far from its being even plaus ible to say of White's vipers that there was "little room to suppose that the brood had ever been in the open air before," there is every reason for saying that they had been in the world for such time as enabled them to add perhaps two inches to their length, and gain considerable experience, which would account for their being so exceedingly active, like their American relations. They had simply been swallowed, but not from fear, at least immediate fear, for the mother was enjoying herself by lying in the grass and basking in the sun when killed (like the American snake on the top of a dry stone wall), having no fear for her young inside of her while she herself was safe. That is done in America for no apparent reason; perhaps merely to gratify the natural instinct of the mother, however she might feel in the event of her family quarrelling, when, I presume, she would be only too glad to drive

them forth by the same power that enabled her to swallow them.

I have given a form of experiment for testing whether or not vipers swallow their young, by examining a dead one. I will now explain how it might be tried in the person of a living one. Let some one procure a pregnant viper (but distinguishing the appearance from that of having swallowed an animal much thicker than herself), and confine her in an open space suitable to her natural disposition, but from which she could not escape, and watch results. If she is pregnant with eggs she will either deposit them like American snakes, or retain them, according to White's theory, to be hatched inside of her. If she lays the eggs she will return to her natural size, and continue so till the eggs are hatched and the young ones require her care, when they will either be seen with her or found inside of her, which will manifest itself in her second pregnancy, causing her to become more "heavy and bloated" as they increase in size. If she is caught when pregnant with young, there will be times that they will be seen, causing a corresponding diminution in her size, and times when they will not be seen, causing her again to appear pregnant from having swallowed them. If she was pregnant with eggs, and brings forth according to White, it would not be possible, in her comparative freedom, to have a midwife present to ascertain whether the eggs were hatched inside or outside of the animal, or what became of the shells, that is, whether young and shells were voided at the same time, or which first. If, however, she came in pregnant, and suddenly produced young after remaining in her original state night and day for a considerable time (which fact never could be ascertained), then White's theory, to a certain extent, would appear correct as to the hatch

Mr. Frank Buckland has agreed to test the phenomenon of swallowing in a very unphilosophical way, by procuring a viper with young already born or hatched-he probably does not know which-and asks for proof of the swallowing while the creature is in the hands of the Philistines, when she has no call to do it, to carry the young anywhere, or protect them from the weather, or preserve them from approaching danger that is avoidable. In short, her captivity prevents that which Mr. Buckland insinuates it should lead to a very ingenious and frank way to choke off proswallowers. Cats generally will not even look at rats when interfered with in their own way and place of tackling them. There is nothing to prevent Mr. Buckland making the experiments I have suggested. He has already "taken proceedings" in the matter, but in a very unreasonable manner; and it is to be hoped he will do something further, and gratify the curiosity of naturalists everywhere, whatever the result might be.

I need not suggest the experiment of trying to hatch the eggs of the viper in a temperature like that of the place from which they were taken, in the same way that the American brought forth his snakes on the mantelpiece; for if she lays eggs, that would settle the question as to her being a swallower." I may, however, say something more about the American experiment. The gentleman who conducted it I had hunted up, after a lapse of thirteen years (sometimes a rather difficult

ing, as it was in July. He killed the mother, which was hovering about, apparently in the expectation of her services being required, as the eggs proved very near the hatching point. He took one of them to his place of business in New York, to satisfy incredulous people, and fortunately the birth took place on a table, in the presence of several people. The young snake, which measured six inches in length, made its appearance by the head, gradually uncoiling itself out of its prison, which was an inch long, but not nearly so broad, and did not break in pieces like a brittle fowl's egg on being hatched, but opened in two, as the outside covering of some kinds of nuts come apart. It proved of the ordinary brown striped species (a harmless kind), the same as the old one killed, which was about three feet long-an exact description of the one from which I took the young ones. Immediately after it disengaged itself, it began to move about in a pretty lively way like snakes, but did not prove in any way belligerent when touched. It was then put into spirits and preserved. The substance covering it resembled ordinary paper in thickness, and dry, but considerably attenuated from its original condition.* The eggs found by this gentleman were in a pretty bunch or cluster, all sticking together, but how formed he did not know till I told him that before being laid they were in a string, lying along the back of the snake, loosely connect

*If fifteen or twenty eggs, lying along the back of a snake, were hatched inside

in the way described, we would have, on a small scale, something worse than an earthquake. Or, imagine the eggs, hatched at birth like the bursting of a shell at the mouth of a gun, or some time after leaving it, and returning to the gun, without being taken into it, and we would have the doctrine of anti-swal lowers well illustrated.