SERPENTS. 153 



ment for the larvae of the insects of the Family 

 Derniestidcs. 



When irritated or alarmed, some of the Ser- 

 pents (the non-venomous ones, at least) have 

 recourse to tv/o very distinct actions, both of 

 which seem to be means of defence. The first is 

 the production of the shrill sound already alluded 

 to, called hissing, by the forcible ejection of air 

 from the narrow glottis. This sound, though so 

 familiarly spoken of as to have become almost 

 proverbial, we cannot help thinking, is uttered 

 rather infrequently ; as we have seen species of 

 Coluhridce and Boadce excited to rage, but do not 

 remember ever to have heard the " hissing" in 

 question. MM. Dumeril and Bibron also state 

 that they never could hear more than a sort of 

 blowing {soujjflement), such as would result from 

 the rapid issue of a current of air through a sim- 

 ple pipe, — a quill, for instance. The other defence 

 is much more certain, and less likely to be over- 

 looked. It consists in the diffusion of a fetid, 

 sickening odour, so nauseous as to be overpower- 

 ing. It proceeds from certain glands situated 

 near the orifice of the body. We have remarked 

 in the Boa, that the urine, which is discharged in 

 the form of a butyraceous pulp, like moist plaster 

 of Paris, has the same fetor. 



White of Selborne gives the weight of his tes- 

 timony to both of these modes of defence. " I 

 wish I had not forgot to mention the faculty that 

 snakes have of stinking se defendendo. I knew a 

 gentleman who kept a tame snake, wliich was in 

 its person as sweet as any animal while in good 

 humour and unalarmed ; but as soon as any 

 stranger, or a dog, or a cat, came in, it fell to 



