WHITE OF SELBORNE ON SNAKES. 



21 



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 attending the propa- 

 gation of this class of animals " (p. 

 66). What he says^n regard to the 

 hatching of their eggs must, there- 

 fore, be rejected in the absence of 

 details of the data from which he 

 drew his conclusion. 



He says the eggs were laid every 

 summer in his melon beds, in spite of 

 all his people could do to prevent 

 it, but siys nothing of the rest of 

 the garden, nor explains why the 

 .snakes preferred the other part of 

 the ground. When the eggs were 

 deposited, the soil had either not 

 been dug, and, when dug, they 

 would be discovered and destroyed; 

 or the seeds of the melons had been 

 sown or had sprung, when no op- 

 portunity would be given for dis- 

 covering the nest, by such cultiva- 

 tion as the melons required ; or, if 

 they were so discovered, they would 

 be destroyed by the gardener, in 

 obedience to orders, or- from his 

 natural antipathy to the animal, and 

 particularly as it would involve no 

 trouble in doing it. Besides, it is 

 natural to suppose a snake would 

 leave no trace of her nest, unless 

 when she disturbed newly and fine- 

 ly-dressed ground, requiring an ex- 

 pert to tell what it implied, which 

 White's people were not apt to be. 

 If the eggs were not discovered, 

 how did White know they were 

 there at all, or if discovered, that 

 they were laid in the summer and 

 hatched in the spring? Or how did 

 he know that they were not intended 

 for a second brood, or were not a 

 second laying after the first had 

 been destroyed ? One cannot easily 

 account for the snakes preferring 

 the melon beds to the exclusion of 

 the rest of the garden, and espe- 

 cially in the face of the persecution 

 which they suffered year after year 

 for so doing. In short, White's as- 

 sertion as to the eggs lying in the 



ground all winter must be rejected, 

 unless it could be proved; and it 

 must be held that British like 

 American snakes deposit eggs to 

 be hatched the same year. White, 

 at least, admits that the viper con- 

 tains eggs about the 2yth of May, 

 and young ones by the 4th of Au- 

 gust. 



The nest of the black-snake, like 

 that of other species, is never found 

 except when turned up by accident. 

 The Illinois gentleman, on a closer 

 examination, says the eggs, com- 

 pletely covered by about three 

 inches of loose soil, which slightly 

 flattens the tops of them, are found 

 neatly coiled in a solid circle, one 

 tier deep, and connected by a sub- 

 stance like a loosely-made cotton 

 thread, that is easily broken, and is 

 covered with something like mildew, 

 which in a less degree attaches to 

 the eggs and the earth immediately 

 surrounding them. This connect- 

 ing thread, noticed by others on a 

 like occasion, was the remains of 

 the glutinous substance connecting 

 the eggs, which were taken out of 

 one of the same species by myself. 

 This evidence somewhat contra- 

 dicts that of the Long Islander, 

 who, however, insists that the eggs 

 found by him were in a bunch or 

 cluster, but then they were of an- 

 other species, and deposited in a 

 different soil. On one occasion, the 

 young, on the eggs being opened, 

 ran about three yards, but died, ap- 

 parently from the effects of the sun, 

 which is doubtless a reason for the 

 mother taking them inside of her for 

 some time after birth. A snake 

 when at rest naturally chooses the 

 warmest spot, where the rays of the 

 sun are concentrated, especially at 

 the opening and closing of the sea- 

 son, and which would be too strong 

 for her newly-born progeny without 

 some covering. That doubtless ac- 

 counts for the one containing the 

 young being killed on the top of a 

 dry stone wall, nearly three feet 

 high. I had some difficulty in see- 



