200 THE MINDS AND MANNERS 



helpless men, women and children who have hoped and acted 

 similarly in the presence of bandits and hold-up men presenting 

 loaded revolvers! But they were far from being "charmed.") 



The bird hopes, and sits still, paralyzed with fear. At its 

 leisure the serpent strikes; and after a certain number of 

 horrible minutes, all is over. I think there is no real "charm" 

 exercised in the tragedy; but that there is on the part of the 

 bird a paralysis of fear, which is in my opinion a well denned 

 emotion, common in animals and in men. I have seen it in 

 many animals. 



Snakes that Feign Death. The common hog-nosed 

 snake, mistakenly called the "puff-adder" and blowing "viper" 

 (Heterodon platyrhinus) of the New England states, often feigns 

 death when it is caught in the open, and picked up. It will 

 "play 'possum" while you carry it by its tail, head downward, 

 or hang its limp body over a fence. Of course it hopes to 

 escape by its very clever ruse, and no doubt it often does so 

 from the hands of inexperienced persons. 



Do Snakes Swallow Their Young? I think not. A 

 number of persons solemnly have declared that they have seen 

 snakes do so, but no herpetologist ever has seen an occurrence 

 of that kind. I believe that all of the best authorities on 

 serpents believe that snakes do not swallow their young. The 

 theory of the pro-swallowists is that the mother snake takes 

 her young into her interior to provide for their safety, and 

 that they do not go as far down as the stomach. The anti- 

 swallowists declare that the powerful digestive juices of the 

 stomach of a snake would quickly kill any snakelets coming in 

 contact with it; and I believe that this is true. 



At present the snake-swallowing theory must be ticketed 

 "not proven," and is filed for further reference. 



The Hoop Snake Fable. There is no such thing as a 

 "hoop-snake" save in the vivid imaginations of a very few 

 men. 



The Intelligence of the King Cobra. Curator of Rep- 



