388 BREEDING HABITS OF SNAKES—HAY. 
ence was not suspected until the yolk was cut partially away. Never- 
theless this immature little snake exhibits quite distinctly the pattern 
of coloration found in the adults. In contact with this egg was another 
in which no indications of an embryo were to be found. The more im- 
mature young were probably lying farther forward in the animal, but 
of this I am not now certain. Should all these eggs be expelled from 
the mother’s body at the same time, it would seem that the least de- 
veloped young must perish. A female (U.S. Nat. Mus., No. 17950) of 
of this species taken in Hamilton county, Ind., contained eight eggs, and 
these had not yet left the ovaries. Three of the eggs were in the left 
ovary. The eggs were an inch long by half an inch in the short diame- 
ter. Prof. Putnam mentions* a specimen of Crotalophorus miliarius 
which contained fourteen eggs. This appears to be a larger number 
than is usually found in the Crotalide. 
The species of the genus Hutainia are probably all ovoviviparous. Dr. 
Goode, as already cited, says that there is some reason to believe that 
some of them are in some instances oviparous, in others ovoviviparous. 
Dr. C. C. Abbottt says that the eggs of the garter-snake, EH. sirtalis, 
and of the ribbon-snake, EH. saurita, are deposited in the loose sandy 
soil of the recently plowed fields. He has found none earlier than May 
9; and once he found a complement of seventeen within a day or two 
of hatching. He farther states that he has never come across a young 
snake less than 4 inches in length, except in the case of the hog-nosed 
snake Heterodon platirhinos. Iam convinced that there is some error 
of observation here. I shall present evidence that the species of Hu- 
tainia bring forth living young, and that too rather late in the summer 
andinautumn. It seems improbable that a suake should usually be 
ovoviviparous, and again, at rare times, should lay eggs furnished with 
coverings suitable for protecting the developing embryos. If notwith- 
standing all this, the Hutainias do lay spring eggs, I shall be extremely 
glad to receive a batch of them. 
Dr. H. C. Bumpus, in his interesting account of the snakes,t says 
that the eggs of Hutainia sirtalis and of HL. saurita are sometimes found 
about outbuildings, and in hatching give birth to little fellows having 
enormous eyes and a spotted body, the longitudinal bands of the adults 
only being gained after several sloughings of the skin. The source of 
the information here detailed is not given; but almost certainly the 
eggs of some other species have been mistaken for those of Hutainia, 
Young of both the species, especially those of saurita, taken by myself 
from the oviducts of the female and with a considerable portion of the 
yolk still unabsorbed, have the stripes perfectly distinct. 
As to E. sirtalis, Prof. F. W. Putnam§ states that a female taken 
July 22 contained forty-two nearly developed young. Each of these 
*Amer. Nat., Vol. 11, p. 134. 
t Rambles, &c., p. 295. 
$ Riverside Natural History, Vol. 111, p. 371. 
§ Amer. Nat., Vol, 1, p. 134, 
