SNAKES SWALLOWING THEIR YOUNG. 



2 9 



by the mouth. On the occasion 

 mentioned I described how the egg 

 of a garter snake was hatched on a 

 table, that is, how the snake burst 

 it and uncoiled itself out of it ; and 

 I presented to the doubters of 

 vipers swallowing their young the 

 following phenomena : " If fifteen 

 or twenty eggs, lying along the back 

 of a snake, were hatched inside in 

 the way described, we would have, 

 on a small scale, something worse 

 than an earthquake. Or, imagine 

 the eggs hatched at birth like the 

 bursting of a shell at the mouth of 

 a gun, or sometime after leaving it, 

 and returning to the gun, without 

 being taken into it, and we would 

 have the doctrine of anti-swallow- 

 ers well illustrated." Chambers says 

 that "the young are produced in 

 the early part of the summer, from 

 twelve to twenty or more at a 

 birth;" while White of Selborne 

 testified that eggs having no trace 

 of fcetus in them were taken out of 

 one about the 27th May, and young 

 ones out of another on the 4th 

 August. If both are right, and the 

 propagation of vipers is uniform as 

 to time, with no second brood, and 

 if the seasons were the same, we 

 could conclude that the eggs come 

 rapidly to maturity ; and that 

 White's vipers (upwards of seven 

 inches long) were perhaps six weeks 

 old when forcibly taken out of the 

 mother. I lay it down as an axiom 

 that we must hold that all snakes 

 swallow their young, till the oppo- 

 site can be proved of any particular 

 species of them. 



I may add that the United States 

 are a fine field for the study of 

 snakes, as they are still to be found 

 close up to even large cities like 

 New York. They were and are 

 yet numerous around Hoboken, op- 

 posite, in the State of New Jersey. 

 " Snake Hill," the site of the county 

 poor-house, got its name from hav- 

 ing been a great resort of many kinds 

 of them. The snakes of a harm- 

 less kind that annoy the American 



housewife the most, in some places, 

 are the black and milk species. 

 The first will gobble up the eggs of 

 hens that lay, or " steal their nests," 

 in the woods, or the chickens so 

 hatched that become wild after 

 some time, requiring trouble to re- 

 claim them, like kittens born in a 

 stable or where they cannot be seen 

 and handled. The other snake is 

 said to steal into the premises and 

 drink the milk ; hence its name. 

 Snakes seem loth to go into winter 

 quarters, and apparently resort to 

 expedients to delay it. On the rail- 

 road, close up to the petroleum dock 

 at Weehawken, near where Burr 

 shot Hamilton, they have been 

 found lying along the rails and 

 sometimes across them, for the heat 

 of the sun concentrated on the iron, 

 when the train would come quickly 

 along and cut in two those lying 

 across the rails in a partly lethargic 

 state. As the season approaches 

 its close they are easily killed in 

 the woods. Four men, one of whom 

 I am acquainted with, set out one 

 day on a nutting expedition in the 

 neighbourhood, but not succeeding 

 in that, turned it into snake-hunt- 

 ing. In a short time they killed 

 thirty-six, comprising black and 

 garter snakes, and another species 

 the name of which they did not 

 know. They found them all bask- 

 ing on the warmest spots, and more 

 or less near each other as regards 

 species. A snake's winter den is 

 often discovered by a straggler going 

 late to it. On one occasion a den, 

 under the root of a tree, was found 

 in this way. By the count it con- 

 tained seventy snakes, torpid and 

 " lumped up " together, in about 

 the following proportions : black, 

 4; adder, 2 ; and garter, i. Another 

 den contained about thirty* but 

 mostly adders. Sometimes a snake 

 is overtaken by the winter and 

 frozen in the woods. A son of the 

 Negro I have mentioned, when 

 bringing " brush " into the house 

 for kindling or " brightening " fires, 



