Young Snakes Taking Refuge in the Mother's Month. 69 



rushed into it and disappeared down her throat." I have found 

 Mr. Markley a good observer and perfectly rehable. The 

 second case that has come to my knowledge was as follows : 



While walking through the mountains of northern Georgia 

 last June (1909), on a collecting trip, I stopped at Osborn 

 P. O. to talk to Mr. Foster, a very intelligent mountaineer. 

 He told me his neighbor had recently surprised two female 

 rattlesnakes as they lay among some rocks. Each snake had 

 her young with her. The young ones of one snake were 

 smaller than those of the other. When he surprised them, 

 both old snakes opened their mouths and the young ones 

 rushed in, the larger ones going into one and the smaller ones 

 into the other. Both old snakes, and also the young, were 

 killed, and from the description were Crotalus horridus, Linn., 

 that being the most common species in those mountains. Un- 

 fortunately they were not saved. Mr. Foster's son cut out 

 of one rattlesnake fifteen young of different sizes. He says 

 the young ones go clear down the throat. The parent snake 

 leaves them to shift for themselves when they attain a length 

 of from 8 to 12 inches. The union of the sexes takes place, 

 he says, about July 1st, and the average size in these mountains 

 of the adults is from 33^ to 4 feet in length. Mr. Sol. Stephan, 

 Superintendent of the Cincinnati Zoo, has kindly given me 

 the following incidents : 



*T once called to see a man who had some rattlesnakes in a 

 glass case. One of them was an old female with young ones 

 about 8 inches long. When the snakes were startled the old 

 female opened her mouth and two of the young ones ran into 

 it. The owner assured me that when the young ones were 

 smaller, they always, on being alarmed, went down their 

 mother's throat." 



The other case mentioned by Mr. Stephan was an old female 

 garter snake that had a bunch of young ones inside of her. 

 These were shaken out in a lively condition. 



In Cope's Crocodilians, Lizards and Snakes of North 

 America, Page 1,148, Prof. O. P. Hay gives an instance in 



27 



