
DO SNAKES SWALLOW THEIR YOUNG? 133 
The new horn continues to grow from the tip downwards, 
and generally to curve inwards; at the same time the thic 
skin below continues to harden, at first assuming the appear- 
ance of black leather. It is flexible, so that the tip may be 
bent in any direction; a prong sprouts from the base, and, 
by the middle of summer, the horns are fully developed, to 
be dropped and again renewed in the autumn. 
The horn, when shed, seems to be a mass of agglutinated 
hairs enclosed by a substance resembling whalebone in 
appearance ; some of the hairs, however, never amalgamat- 
ing with the horn, but retaining their natural condition, and, 
passing entirely through the horn, will be found protruding 
on the inside and outside of the horn. 
The animal, from which I have made the drawings, is now 
developing his fourth pair of horns. The second pair of 
horns were about three inches longer than the first, and the 
same difference existed between the second and third pair. 

EXPLANATION OF PLATE 3. 
Fig. 1. The animal in October, immediately after shedding the horns. 
Fig. 2. Appearance in August, the horns being perfect. 

DO SNAKES SWALLOW THEIR YOUNG? 
BY F. W. PUTNAM. 

“Ep t WELLSVILLE, N. Y., Sept. 4, 1867. 
‘DITORS AMERICAN NATURALIST 
Sirs,— A short time since I was in Codir, Pa., in whortle- 
berry time, and a man who had been out berrying stated that i suddenly 
came across a Rattlesnake with her young, some twenty-six, * about her. 

* In regard to the number of snakes in a brood, very little is known. a 
be deat a m number for a a Rattles nake, taking ke own 0 

as a guide, for of two fem. ah os one gee 
a and the other eight ni formed eggs in oe ar though thee were a number 
Small ones (not quite as large as peas) which had pro henly. been impregnated and 

might have become developed before the ott d, but which appeared to 


