65 
“ Certainly, my dear Count, your critical ob- 
servations and your very plausible proposition 
must accomplish much toward disposing of the 
generally accepted belief that snakes are both 
oviparous and viviparous. I shall hereafter 
feel fully convinced in my mind that snakes 
are only oviparous in their generative habits.” 
“ Well, my Fritz, nearly all scientific beliefs 
are open to contradiction through the results of 
careful observations of critical investigators, and 
it is only by the honest efforts of such careful 
observers that science becomes a reliable source 
of truth.” 
“ Ag a rule snakes pay but indifferent atten- 
tion to their offspring. I have never witnessed 
an instance when the parent snake manifested 
any concern for the young she had brought in- 
to existence. Yet it is a well authenticated fact 
that the parent will temporarily swallow its 
young to protect them from threatening dan- 
er.” 
“Ts there any positively reliable external 
marks or peculiarities by which the sex of our 
common snakes ean be distingnished ?” 
“No. Though I have frequently witnessed 
the mating habits of my pets, yet even after 
the most critical examination I have utterly 
failed to secure any distinguishing features that 
would at once give the sex of a specimen se- 
cured in its natural haunts. The female is 
generally larger than her mate, but this is a 
most unsatisfactory proof of sex, as I have seen 
