374 RECREATIONS OF A NATURALIST 



the parent, and that on holding her up by the tail 

 and squeezing the body downwards towards the head 

 the young were pressed out of the mouth and fell 

 among the herbage. He had never heard of the 

 offer of a reward for an Adder killed after swallow- 

 ing her young and with mouth tied up to prevent 

 their escape. His story was confirmed by another 

 keeper who had also witnessed the incident. 



Although observations of this kind, more or less 

 circumstantial, have been usually made in the case 

 of the Adder or Viper — I prefer the name adder for 

 its good old English origin (A.S. ncedre, seen in 

 nether and natterjack) — similar observations have 

 been reported of many other species of snake ; so 

 many, indeed, that it seems improbable that every 

 one of them could have been founded on error. 



Indeed ever since Palisot de Beauvais discovered 

 that the Rattlesnake had the same habit as our 

 Adder a great deal of evidence has accumulated 

 which shows that the habit is common to several 

 American species. 



A well-known American zoologist, Dr Brown 

 Goode, has been at the pains to publish all the 

 evidence he could collect on this subject. In the 

 Proceedings of the American Association for the 

 Advancement of Science, 1873 (comparable with 

 the Reports of our own British Association), he has 

 an article on the question " Whether Snakes swallow 

 their young." 



In reply to his inquiry for evidence, printed in 

 the American Agriculturist for February 1873, 

 more than eighty letters were received from persons 



