500 SNAKES. 



viviparous,' was the decision arrived at by the American 

 ophiologists ; or vivipaj'oiis, for we have seen that the two 

 words have but little value as a distinction. I would venture 

 so far as to render it thus : — 



III snakes luJiich are eithei' viviparous^ or in whicJi from 

 some cause or other extrusion has been so postponed that tJie 

 young are conscio2ts of existenee before birth. Conscious also 

 when born that they had been safer in that pre-natal 

 condition than now when assailed on all sides by dangers 

 hitherto unknown. This idea — and probably an untenable, 

 unphysiological, and foolish idea, which science might laugh 

 to scorn in an instant — still the idea did flash into my mind 

 one day in the summer of 1873, when Holland, announcing 

 a brood of young ring snakes which had just been hatched 

 at the Gardens, and describing their baby terrors, said, ' It 

 is funny to see how they all try to wriggle back into their 

 shells again.' 



* Then those little Colubers had been conscious of security 

 before they were hatched,' I reflected, ' and conscious when 

 they did emerge into -activity that the shell had been a safe 

 refuge to them.' (This was prior to the American Conven- 

 tion, of which I knew nothing until long afterwards.) 



Consciousness of locality must, I think, have a good deal 

 to do with the maternal refuge ; and that snakes possess 

 this consciousness in a strong degree has been already shown 

 in their habit of returning to the same spot to hibernate 

 year after year : and not only for winter quarters ; but a 

 strong love of locality and a memory of home are observed 

 wherever snakes abound. ' They remain in a hole or a 

 crevice of the wall for years/ Fayrer affirms. In his 



