DO SNAKES REFUGE THEIR YOUNG 1 503 



a hunter, or a resident incidentally mentions snake habits, 

 he confirms this home affection. 



' Snakes, if aggressive at no other time, are always spiteful 

 when they have young,' says Fayrer. And an anecdote is 

 related of a man who stumbled on a nest of young 

 Hamadryads, and was pursued a long distance by the angry 

 mother. Terror added wings to his flight, as she came fast 

 upon him. In despair he plunged into a river and swam 

 across, but on reaching the opposite bank, up reared the 

 furious Hamadryad, its dilated eyes glistening with rage, 

 ready to bury its fangs in his trembling body. Escape now 

 seemed hopeless, and as a last resource he tore off his turban 

 and threw that at the enemy. With characteristic stupidity 

 the snake plunged its fangs into this, biting it furiously. 

 After wreaking its vengeance upon the turban, it glided 

 back to its nest and its young ones ; and so the man 

 escaped. 



Apropos of Indian snakes, Nicholson, though a practical 

 ophiologist, never heard of snakes swallowing their young in 

 India. This may be because so large a proportion of them 

 are egg-laying, and because the only two vipers, Daboia and 

 Echis, are nocturnal, very shy, and not so frequent. Most 

 of the other members of the Indian viperine snakes, the 

 CrotalidcB, are tree snakes, which, like the sea snakes, are more 

 likely to be dispersed and separated from their progeny, and 

 to take refuge in flight. They are, besides, less frequent, 

 shy, nocturnal, or crepuscular ; and belong more to Malay 

 and Hindoo China, than to the localities in which observa- 

 tions are more feasible. Fayrer does not even state 

 positively that they are viviparous. At the same time 



