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ed by a soft glutinous substance, | in length, and, although helpless to and apparently ready to be laid; protect themselves, are exceedingly when he concluded with me that nimble-"sharp as needles," as they had all been deposited at illustrated by their passing like a once, with a spiral or circular turn continuous glistening string" down of the animal, which would give the mother's throat, when by her them the shape in which they were peculiar hiss she calls them to found. The New Jersey and Illi- her on the approach of danger, alnois gentlemen assert that the eggs though they are always near her; found by them (about three inches and that very young snakes are below the surface in loose soil in never seen by themselves, and selIllinois) were not so connected to- dom even with the mother, for the gether but then they ploughed reason that she has already providthem up. Those from Long Island ed for their disappearance on the and Illinois assert that different approach of danger. The Long kinds of snakes are found on the Islander never saw snakes so dissame ground, although my experi- appear, but one day he heard the ence, which was much less than peculiar hiss, the meaning of which theirs, found it otherwise.t The he knew well from description, alyoung of a snake from two to three though the snake was hidden from feet long, when born, they say, are view, and he made a rush to where from four-and-a-half to six inches it seemed to be, to see the phenom

*

*The eggs found on Long Island had evidently been deposited in a confined space, which would make them bunch or cluster, in place of being connected by the ends, by the glutinous substance, as when laid.

Some kinds of snakes are found on the same ground, although they live separately, except when they hybernate, when several kinds are found together. Some species not only make war upon but devour others. Here is what Hun ter, to whom I will again refer, says on the subject:

"Both the rattle and black snakes prey on them [the prairie dog]; .... but their destruction would be still more considerable were it not for the perpetual belligerency of these reptiles" (p. 177). "The common black, copperhead, and spotted swamp snakes never fail, I believe, to engage with and destroy them [the rattlesnakes] whenever they meet, which, together with the hostility that exists between the two species [of rattle snakes, the black and parti coloured], prevents an increase that would otherwise render the country almost uninhabitable" (p. 179). "When the two species [of rattlesnakes] fight, it is by coiling and striking at each other; they frequently miss in their aim, or rather avoid each other's fangs by darting simultaneously in a direction different from the approaching blow. When one is bitten, it amounts to a defeat, and it instantly retreats for a watering place, at which, should it arrive in time, it

slakes its thirst, swells, and dies. I have
witnessed the effects of the poison on
their own bodies, or on those of the an-
tagonist species, in several instances,
and have never known one that was
bitten to recover, notwithstanding the
generally prevailing opinion to the con-
trary, that such instinctively resort to
efficient antidotes" (p. 179).
"In one
instance, I vexed a rattlesnake till it bit
itself, and subsequently saw it die from
the poison of its own fangs. I also saw
one strangled in the wreathed folds of
its inveterate enemy, the black-snake"
(p. 118). "The other hostile snakes
grasp their necks between their teeth,
wreathe round, and strangle them" (p.
179).

Rattlesnakes . . . . would infest the country to a much greater extent, were it not for the hostility that exists between them and the deer. This animal, on discovering a snake, as I have repeatedly witnessed, retreats some distance from it, then running with great rapidity alights with its collected feet upon it, and repeats this manœuvre till it has destroyed its enemy" (p. 116).

Others state that the deer runs round and round the snake, narrowing the circle each time, till it lights upon it with its feet, as described, and destroys it. It is not mentioned that the deer destroys any other species of snakes; and, if that is true, the curious question would arise, how is the deer enabled to make the distinction in the case of the rattlesnake only?

of the serpent tribe is not described, or hardly recorded, in the pages of natural history. There are a great variety of snakes in America. Sometimes in the West, on a smallsized farm containing prairie and timber and a little swampy land, there will be found at least seven different kinds. All over the country they are found in the gardens, and at times in the barns, corncribs and milk-houses, and occasionally even in the houses.

I will conclude by saying that, for the many reasons given, the British viper is doubtless a "swallower," and oviparous or semi-oviparous. It would be strange indeed if the alleged fact of her swallowing her young cannot be proved by trustworthy ocular testimony. If it can be demonstrated that she is even semi-oviparous in the proper sense of the word, then it necessarily follows that she is a "swallower," since she is found with young inside of her.

enon, but he was too late, for the young ones had already been swallowed. He, however, killed the snake, when the young ones ran out of her mouth. They proved of the same species as those hatched by him, and those taken by me out of a snake. He said that the mother became comparatively helpless after the operation, and showed a wonderful disregard for her own safety in her desire to protect her family. The Illinois gentleman positively asserted that he had seen a young black-snake, fully a foot and a half long, enter the mouth of its mother, which was fully six feet in length. As a general thing, a knowledge of the habits of snakes, more than perhaps any other animal, can be acquired only by a person collecting the experience of others, and comparing it with his own; one having observed one thing, and another another. None I have spoken to know how new-born snakes are fed. They suppose that being born so active they gather their food as newly-hatched chickens do-picking it up themselves, perhaps with the assistance of the mother, but, of course, seizing much smaller prey than would suit her. They do not consider it impossible that they might at first be nourished by the mother by the same means she uses for their protection when she takes them down her throat. All over America young people are often killing snakes, some of them pregnant with young and some with eggs, and sometimes the same species pregnant with both, but not, of course, at the same time, which, as well as swallowing of the young, vided with means for giving birth cause them no small astonishment, to their large-sized young, it is and there the matter rests. But not unreasonable to suppose that older and more intelligent people serpents, at the proper season, are understand the phenomenon of the enabled to receive theirs down their animal laying her eggs to be hatch- throats for protection. The anated in the soil, and then taking the omy of their mouths, throats, and young inside of her for their pro- stomachs will doubtless substantiate tection; and they often express this opinion. Such a phenomenon their surprise that this peculiarity is not contrary to the laws of nature,

naturalist,

The

The philosophical of all men, should be guided in these matters by his reason, by analogy and the nature of things, along with his eyes, and not by his eyes alone, and should remember that facts in natural history take precedence of everything. snake has neither feet, wings, nor fins, and is easily disabled, a sharp stroke with a switch being sufficient to break the back of one of considerable size; and many of them have little or no means of defence to protect themselves, to say nothing of sometimes twenty of a progeny.

As mammals are pro

but rather illustrative of them. For, | The serpent, however much she is as St. Paul says, "All flesh is not hated, has been an object of interthe same flesh; for there is one est, wonder, or worship at all kind of flesh of men, another flesh times and among all nations. In of beasts, another of fishes, and Genesis she is described as more another of birds," and we might subtile than any beast of the field," add another of serpents, each having and the highest of all authority natural laws peculiar to itself, and commands us to imitate her for her illustrating the wonderfully diversi- wisdom, provided it is allied with fied works of the Creator of all. the harmlessness of the dove.

WHITE OF SELBORNE ON SNAKES.*

as happens with every one on such occasions, especially for the first time. Indeed, the plunging of the snake into the water with all her family aboard of her took away the man's breath, as for an instant it did mine, till I saw and was told it was a water-snake. I immediately remembered that an acquaintance, worthy of every confidence, told me that he had several times seen water-snakes in North Carolina swallow their young. Water is, per

ed at how much I meet with inci- | presence of mind for the moment, dentally, sometimes where I could hardly have expected it. Thus I was introduced to a gentleman who had seen an adder on Staten Island, with many young ones, which almost instantly disappeared, he did not know how; but he killed her, and as she seemed very "heavy and bloated," he cut her open, and found upwards of twenty young ones inside of her. The dog of an old acquaintance of mine killed another adder, and shook the eggsut of her, when they appear-haps for the most part, their natural ed ready to be laid; and he himself happened to kick a piece of loose turf near his house, and found a nest of brown striped snake's eggs under it, very near the hatching point. On a trip to Baltimore, at the new year, I dropped into conversation on the subject of snakes with three people only, who happened to sit next me, with the following result. First, with a Virginia Negro, who found, when hoeing a field of Indian corn, a nest of black-snake's eggs, twenty-eight in number, and very near the time of hatching. The next was an engineer or machinist, returning from doing a job on the railroad, who saw a snake, close to water, in the State of Delaware, with fully twenty young ones, which instantly entered her mouth, when she plunged into the stream. The other was a very respectablelooking and intelligent farmer, from the same State, who saw the ordinary brown striped snake swallow her young, when he killed her, and found them more than half way down her body. He also found a nest of eggs of the same species, nearly ready to be hatched, under a shallow stone that little more than rested on the ground, when clearing up a field. Both these men said that they were so completely fascinated by the phenomenon, and the " quick as winkie" way in which the young disappeared, that they lost their

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element, to which they flee in time
of danger, and they are always
near it, somewhat like water-rats.
In approaching people for informa-
tion, so far from putting leading
questions, I almost invariably begin
as one utterly ignorant of the sub-
ject, and dropping on it by acci-
dent, and let them tell their stories
complete, and if time and circum-
stances permit, then question and
cross-question them to the most
minute detail, in the most approved
legal way, giving them at the close
of the "investigation" my reasons
for doing so. I almost invariably
find them interested witnesses
in the proper sense of the word,
easy to manage, and excited, as most
people who have been brought in
contact with snakes are apt to be,
on the subject being mentioned to
them. In America those that no-
tice animated nature are always in-
telligent, whatever might be their
education, and generally men of
humanity in proportion to the in-
terest they take in the subject. But,
as Gilbert White says, the bane of
our science is the comparing of
one animal to the other by mem-
ory" (p. 135), which applies to
some extent to the composition of
these papers, and gives them a
rather rambling character, but per-
haps adds to what interest they
may possess for that very reason.
Thus, to return to the American
snakes swallowing their young.

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