Do Snakes Swallow .their Young? 



BY PROF. G. BBOWN GOODE. 



This is what naturalists have been asking 

 each other for nearly a century. In that most 

 fascinating of books, " The Natural History of 

 Selborne," Gilbert White mentions the popular 

 belief, but does not venture to indorse it. M. 

 Palisot de Beauvois, a member of the French 

 Institute and a councilor of the University of 

 France, who traveled in the United States 

 early in the present century, claimed to have 

 seen five young rattlesnakes, " each about as 

 thick as a goose quill," run clown their moth- 

 er's throat, run out, and then down a second 

 time. John D. Hunter, in his celebrated 

 " Memoirs of a Captivity among the Indians of 

 North America," gives similar testimony. Sir 

 William Jardine, an eminent English natural- 

 ist, wrote in 1853 : " We have always looked 

 upon this as a popular delusion, and the sup- 

 posed habit is so much at variance with what 

 we know of the general manners and instincts 

 of animals, that without undoubted proof we 

 are still inclined to consider it as such." In 

 1865 Mr. M. C. Cooke, of " Science Gossip," 

 strongly advocated the affirmative, citing many 

 instances observed by hi3 friends. In 1869 Mr. 

 F. W. Putnam, of the " American Naturalist," 

 considered the case unproved, though he in- 

 clined to believe with Mr. Cooke. During the 

 past year a lively discussion has been carried 

 on in " Land and Water," Mr. Frank Buckland, 

 one of the keenest of English naturalists, stren- 

 uously opposing the idea. So stood the ques- - 

 tion, the authorities being about equally 

 divided. 



To the American Agriculturist is due the 

 honor, it seems, of finally deciding it. Last 

 February the editors kindly inserted a para- 

 graph asking for information, and in a few 

 weeks about eighty letters had been received 

 from subscribers in twenty-four different 

 States and provinces. Some of these were not 



