26 



SNAKES SWALLOWING THEIR YOUNG.. 



when laid, and that it would be im- 

 possible for them to recognize their 

 progeny, even if aware of the prob- 

 able period of hatching, and that 

 their services are not needed to 

 protect their offspring or feed them. 

 It would have been interesting if 

 he had told us how he learned all 

 that, or how most of it could be 

 ascertained by any one. Let the 

 reader imagine a person in the 

 sheerest wantonness doggedly 

 maintaining the opposite of what 

 a hundred men could testify to, 

 and he will have a good illustration 

 of the action, and what seems to be 

 the character, of this one. He 

 goes on to say that it is only the 

 class producing " living young," in- 

 cluding the English viper and the 

 American rattlesnake, to which at- 

 taches the idea of swallowing their 

 young ; whereas the popular belief 

 in America is that " snakes," without 

 regard to species, do it, while there 

 are few neighbourhoods in which 

 one if not several people cannot be 

 easily found who can testify to it as 

 a fact, and very few indeed from 

 whom something about snakes can- 

 not be learned. In Rees' Cyclopedia 

 we find the following : " Palisot 

 Beauvois thus relates the fact we 

 allude to : Having perceived a rat- 

 tlesnake at some distance, I ap- 

 proached as gently as possible, 

 when on lifting my hand to strike 

 her. she sounded her rattle, opened 

 her mouth, and received into it five 

 small serpents, about the size of a 

 quill. I retreated and concealed 

 myself, when the animal, thinking 

 the danger at an end, opened her 

 mouth and let out her progeny. 

 When I appeared again, they im- 

 mediately took to the same retreat." 

 The editor adds : " He had heard 

 this fact from American planters, 

 ^and it has been since confirmed by 

 'other travellers." D. says: "If 

 there is one marked peculiarity in 

 the race generally, it is the extreme 

 slowness with which they swallow." 

 Certainly, when they take in an ani- 



mal twice or perhaps three times their 

 own width. " Is there any special 

 adaptation in the gullet of the viper 

 that enables it to swallow, on an 

 emergency, with lightning rapid- 

 ity ? " I dare say, none is necessary 

 to enable an average-sized rattle- 

 snake to swallow young " about the 

 size of a quill." The Frenchman 

 doubtless under-estimated their size, 

 owing to the distance (short as it 

 might have been) and the extreme 

 quickness of the creatures, that 

 would prevent an accurate idea be- 

 ing formed of their dimensions. I 

 am not aware of the throat of a 

 snake having been examined to see 

 whether it could allow an instant 

 passage for her young. There is 

 nothing to justify us in supposing it 

 could not, especially at the time 

 nature calls for it. If a throat 

 were examined, it should be that 

 of a snake that was alleged or 

 supposed to have swallowed her 

 progeny. 



I pick up reliable information on 

 the subject of snakes by simply 

 making casual inquiries among peo- 

 ple with whom I am or get ac- 

 quainted. One gentleman killed 

 on Staten Island an adder, that 

 was very full about the body, and 

 he put his foot on her head, and 

 with a stick pressed her towards 

 the tail, and forced twenty-one eggs 

 out of her. They had the ordinary 

 softness and apparent strength of 

 snakes' eggs, and the same colour 

 a creamy or dirty white but 

 showed a darkish substance or 

 body inside, as seen through a dull 

 transparency, doubtless the young 

 well on towards maturity ; but un- 

 fortunately the eggs were not open- 

 ed to see what the contents were. 

 This opinion is strengthened by 

 the fact that eggs taken out of the 

 same species by another acquaint- 

 ance did not present the same ap- 

 pearance, owing doubtless to the 

 fcetus not being developed in them 

 to the same extent. It was about 

 the 1 5th July, that the eggs were 



