488 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



tivity for about a month before the birth of the young, which 

 usually occurs during the latter half of August. The young 

 snakes are born alive, or rather break through their egg mem- 

 branes immediately upon being born. The number of young 

 produced by a single full-grown snake is usually about fifty, 

 although, according to the observations of Mr. C. Tew Seiss, it 

 may vary from thirteen to eighty. To give an idea of the enor- 

 mous dangers which threaten the lives of the little snakes, it is 



easily calculated that if the 

 garter snake arrive at maturity 

 at the end of three years, and 

 then produces an average of 

 forty young at a birth, a single 

 pair of mature snakes will have 

 become the progenitors of over 

 one hundred and seventy thou- 

 sand at the end of the eighth 

 year. 



The young serpents areusu- 



Fio. 4,-Young G^mmS™,, One Day Old. aUy ftbout fiye ftnd ft ha]f inches 



long; they are lively, active 

 little fellows, colored very much like their parents, and have 

 large, bright eyes, which give them a staring, surprised look, for 

 snakes have no eyelids and can, therefore, never vary their ex- 

 pression. At the end of two or three days they grow hungry 

 enough to eat, and will pounce upon and devour earthworms with 

 much avidity. Very amusing indeed is it when two little snakes 

 seize upon opposite ends of the same worm, for the fight only 

 ends when one of the serpents attempts to swallow his brother, 

 worm and all. Earthworms, however, can not be their only food, 

 for the garter snake is exceedingly abundant where earthworms 

 are very rare, as in the Canada woods. I have never observed the 

 mother snake guard her progeny, and believe that the little ones 

 scatter immediately to seek their fortunes. 



Early in October the garter snakes huddle together in con- 

 venient crevices where they hibernate for the winter. As the food 

 of the garter snake consists very largely of frogs and toads, it is 

 probably an enemy to the agriculturist. If we examine carefully 

 the leaves of our trees in late August it will be found that a per- 

 fect leaf is indeed rare ; very few have escaped the ravages of nu- 

 merous insect enemies. In this fact we find but another example 

 of the great law of interdependence of organisms. The greatest 

 enemies of the leaves are the insects ; frogs and toads depend upon 

 insects for their food, and snakes, in their turn, feed upon frogs 

 and toads. So that we see that the more snakes the more insects, 

 and the fewer perfect leaves will we find in late summer. 



