68 Cincinnati Society of Natural History. 



YOUNG SNAKES TAKING REFUGE IN THE MOTHER'S 

 MOUTH IN TIME OF DANGER 



Some Additional Facts 

 By Chas. Dury 



In referring to some recent works on Herpetology, I find 

 very doubting, scant, or no mention at all of this remarkable 

 habit. But little is known of the life history of this badly 

 abused and misunderstood class of reptiles. But few of our 

 snakes are venomous, and these practically extinct in southern 

 Ohio. On the other hand, the harmless species are becoming 

 scarcer each year. Many of these species have a distinct eco- 

 nomic value, because of the nature of the food they eat. This 

 has been brought to my notice in an examination of the con- 

 tents of stomachs of some of the smaller species. In one red- 

 bellied garter snake (Storeria occipitomaculata) I found "cut- 

 worms" (Larvae of agrotis) in the alimentary tract, reaching 

 from neck to vent, and in others various injurious insects, 

 while some of the larger forms destroy numbers of mice. I 

 saw a farmer in Bracken Co., Ky., crushing the body of a 

 garter snake a foot long, with a rock. I said to him, "you are 

 killing one of your best friends." He replied with a quotation 

 from Scripture in justification of his cruelty and ignorance. 

 That mother love and solicitude for her offspring is well devel- 

 oped in these reptiles the following incidents bearing on the 

 above habits will show : 



Some years ago W. H. R. Markley, of Kentucky, related to 

 me the following incident : 



'T was traveling through Kentucky and stopped over night 

 at Mt. Sterling. I was up early next morning taking a stroll 

 through the town, I came to a store window in which there 

 was a large rattlesnake on exhibition. The snake was a female 

 and had several small young ones laying on the floor of window 

 near her head. I rapped sharply on the glass with my cane 

 and the old snake widely opened her mouth and the young ones 



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