UNCOMMON PETS. 
A series of articles on the Care and Keep of Animals in Captivity. 
By P. WELLINGTON FARMBOROUGH, F.Z.S., F.E.S., etc. 
IV. SNAKES. 
ees are usually looked upon with some signs of abhorrence, and many people, 
k even those who have never troubled to find out whether they were correct or 
not, describe them as “nasty, slimy creatures.” Well, speaking generally, snakes are 
not nasty, and are certainly not slimy—or even wet, unless they have just emerged 
from water. Once the natural timidity of a person is overcome, and he or she is 
persuaded to handle one of these reptiles, they are greatly surprised to find that 
snakes are not so unpleasant to touch as they had imagined, and that, contrary to their 
preconceived opinion, they are warm and dry, resembling nothing else so much as a 
piece of well-printed oilcloth. As may readily be supposed, snakes cannot be handled 
indiscriminately. Some do not bite; the majority do, and many of the latter are 
poisonous. In this article all the snakes mentioned as being suitable pets are harmless ; 
that is, they are non-poisonous, and 
if they bite do not inflict any wound 
of at all a serious nature. If due 
care is taken, there is no need for 
the person who “takes up” snakes 
to be bitten at all. The writer has 
handled many hundreds in his time, 
poisonous and harmless varieties, 
and has never yet been bitten by 
any, although at the same time he 
has had many narrow escapes, the 
nearest bemg when a constrictor 
got round his neck and began 
to squeeze; luckily, some one 
experienced in the handling of 
large snakes was close at hand and able to uncoil the reptile, not, however, before 
the writer was getting black in the face. Snakes are of various sizes, some being 
but a few inches im length and others more than twenty feet; some cost a few 
pence, others several times as many pounds. Small snakes are sold at so much each, 
the large kinds, such as pythons, by the foot; the larger the snake the greater 
the price per foot; e¢.g., a Malay python (Python reticulatus) nine feet long costs eighty 
marks—that is, about £4; another, fifteen feet long, is priced at 500 marks; one 
twenty feet long costs 1,000 marks, and one a little longer still (twenty-three feet) is 
valued at 1,500 marks. These prices are taken from Hagenbeck’s latest catalogue. 
Large snakes like these are only for the experienced reptile keeper; and as one 
must learn to crawl before beginning to walk, so must an amateur “ snake-charmer ” 
begin his experience with the smaller species, such as the Four-rayed snake, the 
7fsculapian snake, or the Chicken snake or others of kinds allied, and thus, fortified 
with the experience of these, one may extend ambition to the larger kinds lke the 
Boas and their kindred, or even, as the writer, to the keeping of the dangerous sorts 
such as Rattlesnakes and Cobras. 
A case for snakes is usually a very simple affair, and may conveniently be about 
four feet in length by a couple of feet high and eighteen inches broad. ‘The floor 
312 
CORN SNAKE. 
