i6 



WHITE OF SELBORNE ON THE VIPER. 



enon, but he was too late, for the 

 young ones had already been swal- 

 lowed. He, however, killed the 

 snake, when the young ones ran out 

 of her mouth. They proved of the 

 same species as those hatched by 

 him, and those taken by me out of 

 a snake. He said that the mother 

 became comparatively helpless after 

 the operation, and showed a won- 

 derful disregard for her own safety 

 in her desire to protect her family. 

 The Illinois gentleman positively 

 asserted that he had seen a young 

 black-snake, fully a foot and a half 

 long, enter the mouth of its mother, 

 which was fully six feet in length. 

 As a general thing, a knowledge of 

 the habits of snakes, more than per- 

 haps any other animal, can be ac- 

 quired only by a person collecting 

 the experience of others, and com- 

 paring it with his own ; one having 

 observed one thing, and another 

 another. None I have spoken to 

 know how new-born snakes are fed. 

 They suppose that being born so 

 active they gather their food as 

 newly-hatched chickens do pick- 

 ing it up themselves, perhaps with 

 the assistance of the mother, but, 

 of course, seizing much smaller 

 prey than would suit her. They 

 do not consider it impossible that 

 they might at first be nourished by 

 the mother by the same means she 

 uses for their protection when she 

 takes them down her throat. All 

 over America young people are 

 often killing snakes, some of them 

 pregnant with young and some with 

 eggs, and sometimes the same spe- 

 cies pregnant with both, but not, of 

 course, at the same time, which, as 

 well as swallowing of the young, 

 cause them no small astonishment, 

 and there the matter rests. But 

 older and more intelligent people 

 understand the phenomenon of the 

 animal laying her eggs to be hatch- 

 ed in the soil, and then taking the 

 young inside of her for their pro- 

 tection ; and they often express 

 their surprise that this peculiarity 



of the serpent tribe is not describ- 

 ed, or hardly recorded, in the pages 

 of natural history. There are a 

 great variety of snakes in America. 

 Sometimes in the West, on a small- 

 sized farm containing prairie and 

 timber and a little swampy land, 

 there will be found at least seven 

 different kinds. All over the coun- 

 try they are found in the gardens, 

 and at times in the barns, corn- 

 cribs and milk-houses, and occa- 

 sionally even in the houses. 



I will conclude by saying that, 

 for the many reasons given, the 

 British viper is doubtless a " swal- 

 lower," and oviparous or semi-ovi- 

 parous. It would be strange in- 

 deed if the alleged fact of her swal- 

 lowing her young cannot be proved 

 by trustworthy ocular testimony. 

 If it can be demonstrated that she 

 is even semi-oviparous in the proper 

 sense of the word, then it necessa- 

 rily follows that she is a " swal- 

 lower," since she is found with 

 young inside of her. 



The philosophical naturalist, 

 of all men, should be guided in 

 these matters by his reason, by 

 analogy and the nature of things, 

 along with his eyes, and not by his 

 eyes alone, and should remember 

 that facts in natural history take 

 precedence of everything. The 

 snake has neither feet, wings, nor 

 fins, and is easily disabled, a sharp 

 stroke with a switch being sufficient 

 to break the back of one of con- 

 siderable size; and many of them 

 have little or no means of defence 

 to protect themselves, to say noth- 

 ing of sometimes twenty of a 

 progeny. As mammals are pro- 

 vided with means for giving birth 

 to their large-sized young, it is 

 not unreasonable to suppose that 

 serpents, at the proper season, are 

 enabled to receive theirs down their 

 throats for protection. The anat- 

 omy of their mouths, throats, and 

 stomachs will doubtless substantiate 

 this opinion. Such a phenomenon 

 is not contrary to the laws of nature, 



