106 INTRODUCTION 



ulatus and an Ancistrodon piscivorus are reported to 

 have lived twenty-one years in captivity in Paris. 

 The young of many snakes are very secretive, and 

 are not often found in the open, those that are met 

 with being as a rule either new-born or approaching 

 sexual maturity. 



Snakes are tenacious of life, and remarkable for 

 the reflex movements which take place after they 

 have been cut to pieces, the severed parts of the body 

 and tail wriggling for a considerable time, and the 

 head endeavouring to bite. Accounts of decapitated 

 Rattlesnakes turning round and striking with their 

 bloody stumps are probably not snake stories. 



