18 



WHITE OF SELBORNE ON SNAKES. 



ed at how much I meet with inci- 

 dentally, sometimes where I could 

 hardly have expected it. Thus I 

 was introduced to a gentleman who 

 had seen an adder on Staten Island, 

 with many young ones, which al- 

 most instantly disappeared, he 

 did not know how; but he killed 

 her, and as she seemed very 

 4< heavy and bloated," he cut her 

 open, and found upwards of twenty 

 young ones inside of her. The 

 dog of an old acquaintance of mine 

 killed another adder, and shook the 

 eggs out of her, when they appear- 

 ed ready to be laid; and he him- 

 self happened to kick a piece of 

 loose turf near his house, and found 

 a nest of brown striped snake's 

 eggs under it, very near the hatch- 

 ing point. On a trip to Baltimore, 

 at the new year, I dropped into 

 conversation on the subject of 

 snakes with three people only, who 

 happened to sit next me, with the 

 following result. First, with a Vir- 

 ginia Negro, who found, when hoe- 

 ing a field of Indian corn, a nest of 

 black-snake's eggs, twenty-eight in 

 number, and very near the time of 

 hatching. The next was an engin- 

 eer or machinist, returning from 

 doing a job on the railroad, who 

 saw a snake, close to water, in 

 the State of Delaware, with fully 

 twenty young ones, which in- 

 stantly entered her mouth, when 

 she plunged into the stream. The 

 other was a very respectable- 

 looking and intelligent farmer, from 

 the same State, who saw the ordi- 

 nary brown striped snake swallow 

 her young, when he killed her, and 

 found them more than half way 

 down her body. He also found a 

 nest of eggs of the same species, 

 nearly ready to be hatched, under a 

 shallow stone that little more than 

 rested on the ground, when clearing 

 up a field. Both these men said that 

 they were so completely fascinated 

 by the phenomenon, and the " quick 

 as winkie" way in which the young 

 disappeared, that they lost their 



presence of mind for the moment, 

 as happens with every one on such 

 occasions, especially for the first 

 time. Indeed, the plunging of the 

 snake into the water with all her 

 family aboard of her took away the 

 man's breath, as for an instant it 

 did mine, till I saw and was told it 

 was a water-snake. I immediately 

 remembered that an acquaintance, 

 worthy of every confidence, told 

 me that he had several times seen 

 water-snakes in North Carolina 

 swallow their young. Water is, per- 

 haps for the most part, their natural 

 element, to which they flee in time 

 of danger, and they are always 

 near it, somewhat like water-rats. 

 In approaching people for informa- 

 tion, so far from putting leading 

 questions, I almost invariably begin 

 as one utterly ignorant of the sub- 

 ject, and dropping on it by acci- 

 dent, and let them tell their stories 

 complete, and if time and circum- 

 stances permit, then question and 

 cross-question them to the most 

 minute detail, in the most approved 

 legal way, giving them at the close 

 of the " investigation " my reasons 

 for doing so. I almost invariably 

 find them " interested witnesses " 

 in the proper sense of the word, 

 easy to manage, and excited, as most 

 people who have been brought in 

 contact with snakes are apt to be, 

 on the subject being mentioned to 

 them. In America those that no- 

 tice animated nature are always in- 

 telligent, whatever might be their 

 education, and generally men of 

 humanity in proportion to the in- 

 terest they take in the subject. But, 

 as Gilbert White says, " the bane of 

 our science is the comparing of 

 one animal to the other by mem- 

 ory" (p. 135), which applies to 

 some extent to the composition of 

 these papers, and gives them a 

 rather rambling character, but per- 

 haps adds to what interest they 

 may possess for that very reason. 

 Thus, to return to the American 

 snakes swallowing their young. 



