B. NATURAL HISTORY. 9 



in the case of the English viper as observed by him in the Isle of 

 "Wight; also a note from Herman Strecker of Reading, Pa., who 

 saj-s : — " Some 3'ears ago I came across a garter snake (Eutcenia 

 saurita) with some young ones near her. Soon as she perceived 

 me she hissed and the young ones jumped down her throat, and 

 glided beneath a stone heap. Another time I caught a snake of 

 the same species, but as I thought of immense size, which I took 

 home and put in a cage ; on going to look at her some short time 

 afterwards I discovered a great number of young ones (about 

 thirty if I recollect rightly) and whilst I was still looking at the 

 sudden increase, two more crept out of the old one's mouth, and 

 finally after a little while a third one did likewise." 



Prof. C. F. Brackett, of Princeton College, sends me a note 

 which, besides throwing light upon the question under considera- 

 tion, gives a very interesting instance of hereditary instinct : he 

 writes: — "About twenty -five years ago I saw the following 

 things. A workman who was mowing in my father's hay-field 

 came upon a moist, moss-grown knoll, and his scythe cleft off a 

 portion of the thick moss and sphagnum and revealed several (at 

 least a dozen, I should say) small soft bodies which he declared 

 to be snakes' eggs. I at that time having no knowledge of such 

 matters was incredulous, and proceeded to tear one of them open, 

 when, to my surprise, there appeared a small, perfectly formed 

 milk adder, which immediately assumed a pugnacious attitude, and 

 brandished its tongue as defiantly as an old snake would have 

 done. Other eggs were torn open with like results. Soon the 

 old snake appeared and after endeavoring, apparently to encourage 

 the young family, thus suddenly initiated into the world, it put its 

 mouth down to the ground, and every one that had been liberated 

 from the egg voluntarily and hastily disappeared within the ab- 

 domen of the old one (mother?). Last of all I put the point of a 

 pitchfork through the old snake and fulfilled the scriptural in- 

 junction of bruising its head, when with a pocket knife I opened 

 the abdomen and found the young ones still active." 



The snake referred to by Prof. Brackett is apparently the 

 common milk-snake {Oj)hibolus triawguhim). 



Col. Nicolas Pike, late U. S. Consul at the Mauritius, assures 

 me that he has seen the garter-snake (Eutcenia sirtalis) afford its 

 young family temporary protection in its throat, from which they 

 were soon noticed to emerge. 



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