SCHMIDT] PET SNAKE ON A WISCONSIN FARM 105 



Early in July I caught a specimen of this species about three 

 and a half feet long, which I judged from its stockiness to be a 

 female with eggs. It did not offer the vigorous resistance 

 to capture that the larger ones usually make, and when placed in 

 our glass fronted cage, instead of becoming sluggish and "tame" in 

 a day or two, in accordance with our experience of Pine Snakes, 

 this one continually^ tried to escape, pushing against the glass 

 until its nose was quite mangled. This continued day after day, 

 and we would surely have let it go in pity had we not hoped to see 

 the egg laying process. 



An especial joy of ours is the intense interest in snakes of those 

 who claim to be most afraid of them. It was while two young 

 women of the neighborhood were watching that our pet decided 

 to deposit her eggs, which seemed to them even more scandalous 

 conduct on the part of the snake than was ours in keeping such 

 animals. But nothing could move them from the snake cage 

 while the egg laying continued, a matter of some hours. 



The first eggs were laid at intervals of about ten minutes, the 

 interval gradually increasing so that it took nearly four hours 

 to deposit the entire batch of fifteen. They were about as long 

 as pigeons eggs and about half as broad as long, white, and very 

 sticky, so that they clung together in a mass, about which the 

 mother remained coiled. To our great disappointment the eggs 

 did not develop, and we were unable to follow the life-cycle 

 through as we had hoped. 



Before the egg laying our snake had refused food, as is the some- 

 what unusual custom of snakes with eggs or young, and we did 

 not think of feeding again until we gave up all hope of the develop- 

 ment of the eggs. Then, when we offered a live mouse, the result 

 was highly exciting. The snake threw itself on the mouse, grasp- 

 ing it by the shoulder with the jaws, and coiled around it with 

 the middle portion of the body. The body followed the head 

 so quickly that separate motions of striking and constriction 

 could not be distinguished. After a few minutes of constriction, 

 so tight that the mouse's eyes bulged out of their sockets, the hold 

 was released, and the mouse proved to be quite dead. The snake 

 nosed its prey until it found the head, and immediately began 

 the swallowing process. The remarkable mechanism of a snake's 

 jaws whereby unbelievably large objects can be swallowed, is 

 easily observed. First one side, then the other of the separate 



