124 



on the hill near the school house and nearly every day at noon 

 some of the pupils would go up the hill and frighten the old Garter 

 Snake to see the young ones run down her throat. She would then 

 go into a hole and no doubt permit them to escape at once from their 

 living cell. 



Professor MacGowan said that in thope which he had observed 

 the young remained in the body of the parent about five minutes. 

 It is probable that this habit is confined mostly, if not entirely, to 

 those species of serpents which bear young rather than reproduce 

 by laying eggs. We wish to make further observations along this 

 line and consequently request readers to send us for dissection 

 recentl}' killed specimens of all kinds that may be suspected of 

 having swallowed their young for protection. 



Few people know that the Hog-nosed Adder or Blowing Viper 

 has the habit of acting dead or ''playing possum" when it thinks 

 there is no other means of escape. This peculiarity is described 

 more at length in one of the following pages. 



It does not appear to be generally known that the fangs of ser- 

 pents when pulled or drawn to render them harmless, will develop 

 and become dangerous again within a few weeks after pulling. If 

 these be drawn, others will grow again, and this will be repeated 

 several times. It is lack of this knowledge which sometimes results 

 in injury for persons who have pulled the fangs of venomous ser- 

 pents and then considered themselves safe to keep them as pets for 

 some time. 



There is a great variation in the colors of snakes, and but few 

 persons know that tlie young Black Snake is light in color and spot- 

 ted with gray in such a manner as to be mistaken frequently for 

 the Spotted Adder or House Snake and sometimes for young Cop- 

 perheads. 



The fact that serpents are able to live a year or even more with- 

 out food is dem,onstrated in a specimen of Copperhead which we 

 have recently received and Avliich before being sent (o us was kept 

 for a year and three months without eating any of the food that 

 was offered to it. It is also interesting to know lliat snakes are 

 cannibals, as some kinds at times devour individuals of other spe- 

 cies. 



In the text books, snakes and other rejttiles are called cold- 

 l)looded and there is a common impression that they are truly so, 

 but (he fact is that Ihcse animals are Ihc teni])('ralure of their sur- 

 roundings. We li.ive tested this several limes i-ecently with a 

 thermometer and can say that "the t(-in])erature of such serpents 

 does not differ from that of its surroundings wliere it has remained 

 long enough to become of the same temperature. 



