63 
Now follow me closely, my Fritz. In the 
fore-part of August a garter snake, that mated 
in April, gave birth to sixteen active baby 
snakes. During the delivery of these interest- 
ing little creatures, the parent snake laid in an 
irregularly curved position with her body 
pressed close to the ground. The birth of each 
little snake required such muscular exertion as 
to plainly show the snake’s numerous ribs dur- 
ing the muscular contraction required to de- 
liver the little thing. At birth the baby snake 
was coiled in a mucous envelope and as soon 
as delivered it vainly attempted to free itself 
from this mucous covering, but so elastic was 
it as to defy the puny efforts of the little pris- 
oner. After a few minutes this elastic, mucous 
covering dried, when the baby snake easily 
parted its bonds, gaped several times as though 
really testing the expansive powers of its dilat- 
ible jaws and then started in active search for 
nourishment. The length of the baby snake 
was about six inches, and the body was slight 
and graceful in form, with markings much 
lighter and more delicate than on the parent 
snake. Here you have an intelligent idea of 
the peculiar features in the propagation of the 
young of the oviparous and the viviparous spe- 
cies of our common snakes. 
Now to prove to your satisfaction that snakes 
may possibly be only oviparous, let me give 
you the results of my careful observations that 
must assuredly arouse doubts in a thoughtful 
