WHITE OF SELBORNE ON SNAKES. 



When the young enter the mother, 

 they must, in the nature of things, 

 turn themselves and lie inside in the 

 same direction as her, for the air, 

 "bringing their heads to wind- 

 ward ;" and that is done very quick- 

 ly, as they ran out of the mouth of 

 the mother killed by the Long Is- 

 lander so soon after he heard, at a 

 few paces off, her hiss for her pro- 

 geny to betake themselves to their 

 place of refuge. And that reminds 

 me that the young snakes taken out 

 of the mother in my presence all 

 lay in the same direction. White 

 says that the viper killed by him 

 was "crowded with young." In 

 America the phrase is " packed " or 

 " stuffed " with them, the usual 

 number given being " about twenty" 

 or " fully twenty." The Virginia 

 Negro, as I have already said, 

 counted twenty-eight eggs in a nest, 

 all with young that would be hatch- 

 ed in three or four days, judging 

 from his experience with fowls' 

 eggs. Other nests are found with 

 as few as twelve or thirteen eggs. 

 The eggs of snakes cannot addle 

 for the same reason as fowls', for 

 the only natural risk they run is 

 from the elements ; and the animal 

 is so " wise in her generation " as 

 to choose a place of deposit safe 

 from everything except, perhaps, 

 excessive rain or cold. The water- 

 snake deposits her eggs in little 

 island-like hillocks, a little above 

 the water-mark, and covers them 

 with what dry stuff she can find on 

 them. 



It is necessary for snakes to have 

 a large progeny to provide against 

 their many enemies, of which the 

 pig is not the least formidable ; for 

 the best means of ridding a neigh- 

 bourhood of snakes, even the most 

 venomous, is to turn out the pigs 

 for the purpose. They fight the 

 rattlesnake most scientifically, dodg- 

 ing it, and at the worst presenting 

 the cheek or side of the neck to its 

 blow, when they seize it, and with 

 their teeth and feet soon rend it. It 



is difficult for poisonous snakes to 

 injure a pig, for its skin, fat, and 

 absence of small veins generally, 

 prevent serious consequences. 

 When a rattlesnake is killed, and 

 placed on a road where a pig will 

 pass, the pig starts aside at first, 

 and then seizes the snake with great 

 gusto, to the amusement of those 

 placing it there for the purpose. 

 The Illinois gentleman, mentioned 

 in the first and second papers, when 

 going to his hay-field, saw a black- 

 snake swallow her young, and drove 

 his hay-fork into her, and carried 

 mother and young over his shoulder 

 and threw them into his pig-pen, 

 when the animals started, but as 

 quickly proceeded to enjoy their 

 delicacy. 



I will now consider what White 

 of Selborne put on record about 

 snakes depositing their eggs and 

 shedding their skins, prefacing 

 what 1 have to say with some gener- 

 al remarks of his own. He wrote : 

 " Candour forbids me to say abso- 

 lutely that any fact is false because 

 I have never been witness to such a 

 fact" (p. 127). " My remarks are 

 the result of many years' observa- 

 tion, and are, I trust, true on the 

 whole ; though I do not pretend to 

 say that they are perfectly void of 

 mistake, or that a more nice ob- 

 server might not make many addi- 

 tions, since subjects of this kind 

 are inexhaustible " (p. 180). " The 

 question which you put with re- 

 gard to those genera of animals 

 that are peculiar to America . . . 

 is too puzzling for me to answer ; 

 and yet so obvious as often to have 

 struck me with wonder " (p. 90), 

 which remark was applicable, at 

 the time, to the opossum, which car- 

 ries her progeny in her pouch, to 

 which they flee in time of danger; 

 while she will feign dead, notwith- 

 standing the roughness of the usage 

 she may receive, when she finds she 

 cannot escape; this peculiarity 

 being also exhibited by the young 

 before they have left the mother. 



