64 
mind relative to the scientific reliability of vi- 
viparous snakes. I had a fine specimen of full 
grown garter snake that I daily expected would 
give birth to a family of little ones. Well, one 
day one of my large black snakes attacked the 
garter snake, and before I could prevent it 
deliberately began to gorge its big victim. I 
rescued the garter snake but not before it had 
received such injuries as to cause a premature 
delivery of about a dozen little dead snakes. 
Nearly all of these little snakes were delivered 
with a mass of fatty tissue enveloped in a 
mucous covering. Again, a large water adder 
that had been caught and severely injured on a 
fish-hook was presented to me, to all appear- 
ances dead. Well, I revived it, and in a short 
time it also gave premature birth to several lit- 
tle snakes, all dead and accompanied with the 
mass of fatty tissue as in the previous case. 
Again, late in October one of my water adders 
gave birth to about a dozen active little snakes, 
and in addition to them expelled several egg- 
shaped masses of fatty tissue. Now, does not 
the appearance of the baby snake prematurely 
delivered with its accompaniment of fatty tis- 
sue, and the appearance of the baby snake in 
its fatty tissue within the egg, prove a strong 
argument in support of the proposition that 
snakes are oviparous, but some species hatch 
the eggs in their own body, while others de- 
posit the eggs in conditions favorable to their 
full development by the influence of solar 
heat ? ”’ 
