TREATMENT OF SNAKES IN CAPTIVITY. 291 



be best. This is a matter which is still open to much investi- 

 gation, as there is little doubt that errors in this respect 

 often give rise to canker. It ought always to be of the same 

 temperature as the cage when introduced. As cold weather 

 approaches, little or no water should be allowed to snakes which 

 are kept without artificial warmth with a view to hybernation ; 

 if given during the day it had better be taken out at night, lest 

 wandering into it, they get numbed and lie there, and so die. On 

 board ship in rough seas, I have sometimes hung up the water- 

 globe, to obviate the unpleasant results which ensue from spilling 

 its contents ; but the plan is not to be commended under 

 ordinary circumstances, for — independently of the evident perils 

 of such a position — the oscillation causes a sensation akin 

 to sea-sickness in serpents. They abominate such motion 

 as is produced by agitation of the surface of water ; a snake 

 attempting to swim amidst waves is powerless. 



All should be supplied with water, but different species 

 exhibit very different degrees of inclination for it. The Ana- 

 conda's predilection for the bath has been remarked, and most 

 of the great constrictors are equally fond of it. Many Colubers, 

 too, live nearly as much in that element as on terra fir ma, 

 particularly those which belong to the Natricidce, a family in- 

 cluding three of the genera before-mentioned — Tropidonotus, 

 Heterodon, and Ischnognathus ; their nostrils are placed on the 

 upper part of the nose. On the other hand, some, like the 

 Common Viper and Smooth Snake, rarely drink or bathe, the 

 Rattlesnake perhaps never. At any rate, I can say with con- 

 fidence that specimens kept by me for several years have never 

 been observed to make use of the water to which they can gain 

 access at any time ; certainly they have not done so during 

 the year or more since my suspicion of the fact was aroused, or a 

 little hygrometric apparatus would have recorded it, though they 

 have fed well. The only one I ever knew seek the bath had 

 undergone severe injury, and died shortly afterwards. 



