TREATMENT OE SNAKES IN CAPTIVITY. 245 



brought home alive. D'Orbignyi's Snake (Heterodon d'orUgnyi) 

 exists there in immense numbers also, a very handsome creature, 

 black above, with a fine network of orange or pink lines, and 

 beautifully mottled with red and black underneath ; a singular 

 stunted horn, in the shape of a trihedral pyramid, surmounts 

 its nose. Merrem's Snake {Liophis merremi), again, one of the 

 most variable of all serpents, roams through the whole of South 

 America, and is as much at home in Buenos Ayres as it is in 

 Berbice. Any of these might be kept under the same conditions 

 as British snakes. 



Some of the species, however, which have been given in this 

 category will not stand hybernation here at once, but should be 

 kept warm during their first winter at any rate, and coaxed to 

 feed as freely as possible. It will be found that some are 

 hardier than others, not in direct proportion to the temperature 

 of their native land — witness the difference in this respect 

 between the Python of West Africa and the Boa Constrictor; 

 and as some tropical birds thrive here without shelter even better 

 than their feathered relatives of a higher latitude, and will even 

 after a time voluntarily seek exercise in the open air during the 

 depth of winter, so these snakes may be gradually acclimatised, 

 though of course in a much less degree than birds. On the 

 other hand, buyers must not fail to note that snakes from the 

 coldest quarters of the globe in which the tribe is represented, 

 which have been kept long or bred in the heat of a menagerie 

 reptile house, become practically tropical animals, and must be 

 treated as such. 



London, Paris, Berlin, Amsterdam, Eotterdam, Hamburg, 

 Antwerp, and many other cities contain zoological establishments 

 which comprise collections of reptiles, where opportunities of 

 buying or exchanging frequently arise. In addition to such 

 grand institutions as these, which are generally founded by 

 scientific societies, very many towns, both in England and 

 abroad, boast public pleasure-gardens, where a goodly number of 

 foreign animals are displayed by way of attraction, and some 

 snakes, susceptible of purchase or barter, will generally be found 

 among them. Travelling exhibitions of wild beasts rarely have 

 anything tempting, and moreover their proprietors purchase 

 from the merchants who are always accessible to the amateur 

 himself. These dealers, who can supply anything, from a 



