458 THE DESCENT OF MAN 



they soon learn not to strike at the iron bar with which 

 their cages are cleaned; and Dr. Keen of Philadelphia 

 informs me that some snakes which he kept learned after 

 four or five times to avoid a noose with which they were 

 at first easily caught. An excellent observer in Ceylon, 

 Mr. E. Layard, saw'" a cobra thrust its head through a 

 narrow hole and swallow a toad. "With this encumbrance 

 he could not withdraw himself; finding this, he reluctantly 

 disgorged the precious morsel, which began to move off; 

 this was too much for snake philosophy to bear, and the 

 toad was again seized, and again was the snake, after violent 

 efforts to escape, compelled to part with its prey. This 

 time, however, a lesson had been learned, and the toad 

 was seized by one leg, withdrawn, and then swallowed 

 in triumph." 



The keeper in the Zoological Gardens is positive that 

 certain snakes, for instance Grotalus and Python, distin- 

 guish him from all other persons. Cobras kept together 

 in the same cage apparently feel some attachment toward 

 each other."' 



It does not, however, follow, because snakes have some 

 reasoning power, strong passions, and mutual affection, that 

 they should likewise be endowed with sufficient taste to 

 admire brilliant colors in their partners, so as to lead to the 

 adornment of the species through sexual selection. Never- 

 theless, it is difficult to account in any other manner for the 

 extreme beauty of certain species ' for instance, of the coral- 

 snakes of South America, which are of a rich red with 

 black and yellow transverse bands. I well remember how 

 much surprise I felt at the beauty of the first coral-snake 

 which I saw gliding across a path in Brazil. Snakes colored 

 in this peculiar manner, as Mr. Wallace states on the au- 

 thority of Dr. Gunther," are found nowhere else in the 



•» "Rambles in Ceylon," in "Annals and Mag. of Nat. Hist.," ad series, 

 ▼ol. ix., 1852, p. 333. 



" Dr. Gunther, "Reptiles of British India," 1864, p. 340. 

 " ""Westminster Rev.," July 1, 1867, p. 32. 



