IO 



WHITE OF SELBORNE ON THE VIPER. 



she did not take them inside of her, 

 for she has no other way of provid- 

 ing for their safety ; but, by the 

 mutual instinct of " all aboard," 

 she can at once proceed on her 

 travels with her family ; for a snake 

 is an animal that lives altogether in 

 the open, on sometimes very rough 

 ground, and only retires to hidden 

 places on the approach of cold 

 weather to hybernate.* 



In cutting open the black-snake 

 mentioned, which was fully three 

 feet long, I found that the string of 

 eggs, say fifteen in number, would 

 measure about fifteen inches in all, 

 and were in a chamber of much 

 greater height and width than was 

 necessary to hold them something 

 apparently distinct from the stom- 

 ach proper, and doubtless the re- 

 ceptacle for the young after being 

 hatched outside, and which could 

 be greatly expanded, according to 

 the nature of snakes. Since we 

 know that life is originated and 

 maintained in an egg, and in a 

 womb containing sometimes a doz- 

 en of young, it can be easily im- 

 agined that the young of a snake 

 can have air supplied to them, tem- 



porarily at least, when confined in 

 the way described, doubtless by a 

 special provision of nature to that 

 end. Perhaps they are even nour-^ 

 ished in the same manner, for it 

 cannot be imagined that a tiny 

 creature can be fed in the gross 

 way of the old one, which has no 

 means for tearing and dividing its 

 prey among its progeny. And this 

 gives rise to the questions, how and 

 on what new - born and young 

 snakes are nourished, when not in 

 a state of captivity ? 



It would be singular, indeed, if 

 this peculiarity of snakes is not de- 

 scribed in treatises on the natural 

 history of the animal. I did not 

 see it noticed in the long article in 

 the Encycl&pczdia Britannica, on a 

 hasty glance I gave it. To people 

 inclined to doubt the facts given, I 

 would say how can they find eggs 

 that are hatched outside of the ani- 

 mal that laid them, returning to the 

 inside of the same animal in the 

 shape of complete creatures, that 

 can help themselves in any way, 

 excepting only what a larger growth 

 would enable them to do, unless 

 they entered it by the mouth ? 



WHITE OF SELBORNE ON THE VIPER.\ 



WHAT I have said in regard to 

 snakes having no other in- 

 stinct or resource given them by 

 nature for taking care of their young 

 than receiving them inside of them, 

 would not perhaps be sufficient to 



* This is in reference to the black and 

 brown striped or garter snakes in Amer- 

 ica, and is not intended to apply to all 

 snakes, whether of the land or water 

 species. And the same may be said of 

 some of the other peculiarities men- 

 tioned. 



f Dated December i4th, 1872; printed 

 January nth, 1873. 



satisfy some English readers that 

 the same peculiarity doubtless ob- 

 tains with the British viper, unless 

 I said something on what White of 

 Selborne has recorded on the sub- 

 ject. 



He advanced little of his own 

 knowledge, and admitted that he 

 was no authority, for he said : 

 " The reptiles, few as they are, I am 

 not acquainted with so well as I 

 could wish, with regard to their 

 natural history. There is a degree 

 of dubiousness and obscurity at- 

 tending the propagation of this class 



