VIPERS AND SNAKES GENERALLY* 



FOR some time back I have no- 

 ticed communications in Land 

 and Water on the question, " Do 

 vipers swallow their young?" but I 

 have not seen the subject investi- 

 gated in this way : Has any one, in 

 dissecting a female viper, found eggs 

 within her ? and has any one found 

 young ones inside of another ? If 

 both have been found, then, as a 

 matter of course, the reptile must 

 have swallowed her progeny. 



I will establish the principle by 

 what I have observed on Long Is- 

 land, a short distance from New 

 York. When strolling with a friend, 

 he very suddenly seized a stone and 

 dashed it with all his might upon 

 the top of a low dry stone wall, and 

 killed a pretty large snake of the 

 ordinary brown striped species, ly- 

 ing on it, basking in the sun. As it 

 appeared more than ordinarily full 

 about the body, I began to dissect 

 it in a rough way, by tearing it 

 apart with two sticks (for I did not 

 like to touch it), to see what it con- 

 tained, thinking it might be an ani- 

 mal it had swallowed, as a few days 

 before I had killed another that had 

 a frog partly down its gullet, feet 

 foremost, bui making no noise, 

 when its intended prey hopped 

 away as if it had not been injured. 

 Having always understood that 

 snakes were animals that "laid 

 eggs," I was greatly surprised at 

 finding about twenty snakelets of 

 considerable size, and rather lively ; 

 but my friend asserted on the spot 

 that snakes swallowed their young. 

 This naturally led me to make in- 

 quiries, and I found a trustworthy 

 neighbour who said positively that 

 he had seen it done. Another, 

 equally trustworthy, informed me 

 that he found a bunch of snake's 

 eggs when repairing a fence, and 

 placed them as a curiosity on his 



mantelpiece, and one morning, very 

 soon thereafter, he was surprised at 

 finding a number of young snakes 

 wriggling about on it, the heat of 

 the fire having brought the eggs to 

 the hatching point. Now it is ex- 

 tremely likely that the snake that 

 laid these eggs was of the same 

 species as the one that was killed, 

 for both were in the same neighbour- 

 hood, where they were very numer- 

 ous ; and it is a peculiarity of 

 snakes in America that you seldom 

 or never find two kinds occupying 

 the same ground at least, during 

 two years, I never came across any 

 other kind than that of the one 

 killed, and I saw many of them. I 

 at once concluded that the snake 

 that laid the eggs, and the one con- 

 taining the young ones, were of the 

 same species ; and as a natural con- 

 sequence, that the latter had swal- 

 lowed her young quite indepen- 

 dent of the general belief, and the 

 positive ocular testimony of one 

 person as to the fact.f 



Now to confirm the question by 

 analogy, and on my own testimony. 

 I have said that different kinds at 

 least certain kinds of snakes are 

 not apt to be found on the same 

 ground. There is a deadly enmity 

 between black -snakes and some 

 others. At a place in New Jersey, 

 where I frequently visited, and kept 

 a lookout for snakes, I never met 

 with any on the same ground but 

 black ones. On one occasion I 

 killed one, very full about the body, 

 and took it to the house I was visit- 

 ing for careful dissection, expect- 

 ing to find it with young, when I 

 would satisfy myself whether the 



* Dated December 7th, 1872 ; printed 



2ISt. 



f As will be seen, they were of the 

 identical species. 



(7) 



