Ill 



siHalis (U. S. Nat. Mus., No. 17960), captured near the city of Indianapolis 

 by Dr. Alex. Jameson about August 1, I find thirty-nine partially devel- 

 oped young. Of these, twenty-five are in the right uterus. The young 

 measure G inches in length. There is a considerable amount of yolk still 

 remaining attached to these young, a fact which indicates that they will 

 increase in size before birth. An examination of the mouth of some of 

 these little snakes shows that the egg- tooth is present. The membrane 

 which surrounds each egg is quite thin. The female bearing this lot of 

 young is 33 inches in length. Another female (I^. S. Nat. Mus., No. 

 17961), from Paris, 111., of nearly the same size, contained about thirty- 

 five young snakes, these being packed together so densely in the mother's 

 body that it was difficult to determine the number accurately without 

 removing them. They are each 7 inches long, and are evidently just 

 ready to be expelled. An examination of about half a dozen of them 

 failed to reveal the presence of the egg-tooth, which has therefore been 

 shed. Nor could I determine with certainty that any egg-covering was 

 present. The yolk of the egg, also, is wholly consumed. On opening 

 these young snakes 1 find little or none of the yolk within the body. In 

 this respect they contrast strongly with the young of the rattlesnakes. 

 The young garter-snakes must from the first depend on their own activi- 

 ties for support. This accords well with the report of Mr. C. Few Seiss, 

 that the young of a female kept in confinement began to feed shortly 

 after birth, strugglinji vigorously with one another for the earthworms 

 thrown them. At what time during the summer the Paris, 111., specimen 

 was captured I do not know. Seiss' statement that the sexes of E. sirta- 

 lis pair in the early spring has already been mentioned, Drs. Coues and 

 Yarrow {o^k cit., p. 278) tell us that the females of the closely related spe- 

 cies, E. radix, are pregnant in July and August, bringing forth as many 

 as thirty to forty young ; and that they are found in coitu in September 

 and October. Can it be that snakes copulate twice in the year, as Agassiz 

 says* some turtles do, and as Gage has recently found t to be the habit of 

 the newt, Diemyctijlusf Observations on this point are to be desired. 



The ribbon-snake, E. saurita, appears to be. wholly similar in its breed- 

 ing habits to its relative just considered, although it probably does not 

 bring forth so many young at each birth. Prof. Putnam informs t us that 

 a female, taken in Massachusetts on July 13, had nine eggs, each three- 



- Contributions, Vol. II, p. 491. 

 t Amer. Nat., Vol. XXV, p. 1091. 

 t Amer. Nat., Vol. II, p. 134. 



