SNAKES SHELTERING THEIR YOUNG 



The question " whether snakes, in time of danger, 

 offer their young a temporary refuge in their throats, 

 whence they emerge when the danger is past," 

 has long given rise to controversy which from time 

 to time we are accustomed to see revived. The 

 popular belief in this alleged habit is of considerable 

 antiquity, and a number of authors might be named 

 who have mentioned or made allusion to it. Not 

 to go beyond English writers, however, I may 

 refer to Spenser {^Faerie Queene, 1590, canto i., 

 14, 15, 22, 25) and Sir Thomas Browne, the well- 

 known physician of Charles II. 's time, who, in his 

 Enquiries into Vulgar and Common Errors, 1 646, 

 remarks : " The young ones will, upon any fright, 

 for protection, run into the belly of the dam ; for 

 then the old one receives them in at her mouth, 

 which way, the fright being past, they will return 

 again ; which is a peculiar way of refuge, and, 

 although it seems strange, is avowed by frequent 

 experience and undeniable testimony." 



Izaak Walton, also, in his Complete Angler, 

 mentions the common snake, | which "does breed 

 her young alive, which she does not then forsake, 

 but bides with them ; and in case of danger will 

 take them all into her mouth, and swim away from 

 2 A 369 



