DO SNAKES REFUGE THEIR YOUNG 1 501 



Prairie Folk, Parker Gilmore tells of a family of ' Puff 

 adders ' (by which probably Heterodon platyrhinos is meant) 

 that had taken up their abode under the boards of a porch 

 for several years and could not be routed out. Nicholson, 

 also, in his Indian Snakes, informs us that when he was 

 stationed at Kamptee in 1868, a cobra and a pair of Biingariis 

 acntus lived in his bungalow for a long while. He could 

 not find where the cobra lived, but the Bungari made 

 themselves at home in a hole of the wall under his dressin";- 

 table. He never saw either of these interlopers, but 

 identified them by the skins which they 'periodically cast ;' 

 taking advantage of his absence, no doubt, or of his nocturnal 

 somnolence, to perform their toilet under his looking-glass ! 



The often recounted tale of an Indian who had a tame 

 rattlesnake that went away every spring, and returned regu- 

 larly each autumn to a certain tub which it had appropriated 

 for its home, is only an example of affection for locality ; but 

 by those who were not cognisant of this habit, the story has 

 been produced with a strong flavour of the marvellous, and 

 the Indian who knew by the season when to expect his 

 creeping friend, was not slow to attribute the regular return 

 to especial regard for his own person. That crotalus coming 

 alone so regularly, was probably a lone widow or widower ; 

 because we also know that the pair of snakes are usually 

 seen together, and that they follow each other with strong 

 conjugal affection. This is not irrelevant to the present 

 subject ; because the affection of ophidians, whether conjugal 

 or maternal, is what we are now considering. The quality 

 was well known in classic ages, though it has been denied 

 them in modern times. I\Iany writers on snakes, while 



