SNAKES. 203 



The female lays from sixteen to twenty eggs, 

 which are about as large as those of the Black- 

 bird, connected by a glutinous matter in long 

 strings or chains. They are laid in holes in 

 banks that face the south, in dungheaps, in 

 cucumber and melon beds ; and, according to 

 Mr. W. C. L. Martin, in the crevices of lime- 

 kilns. They are not, in general, hatched until 

 the following spring. The eggs are covered with 

 a whitish, parchment-like membrane ; filled with 

 a glairy fluid, in the midst of which the embryo 

 Snake is coiled up in a little spiral. 



Family IV. Viperad^. 



{Poison-snakes.) 



The curse pronounced upon that primal adver- 

 sary of man, *' the Serpent which beguiled Eve 

 through his subtilty," announced a perpetual 

 enmity between his seed and her seed ; and while 

 this without doubt referred to " that old Serpent, 

 the Devil," it has had a subordinate fulfilment in 

 that animal type under which he was represented ; 

 and the universal horror and aversion with which 

 the venomous Serpents are regarded, is a per- 

 petual memento of that solemn and humbling 

 transaction with which the history of the human 

 race commences. In the whole range of animal 

 existence, there is none that can compare with 

 the venomous Snakes, for the deadly fatality of 

 their enmity ; the lightning stroke of their poison- 

 fangs is the unerring signal of a swift dissolution, 

 preceded by torture the most horrible ; the bite 

 of the American Rattlesnake has been known to 



