
134 DO SNAKES SWALLOW THEIR YOUNG? 





















She immediately. opened her mouth, and instantly the whole family of 
little ones went down her throat. Do you believe it? Is that the nature 
of the Rattlesnake? — H. M. S.” 
THe above question has been often asked, and we have 
several times received statements similar to that expressed im — 
the foregoing letter, which, while difficult to believe, it is 4 
hard to doubt without questioning the veracity of a large l 
number of persons, and it seems to the writer that the 
principal point to prove now is, Do young snakes, after enter- 
ing the throat of their parent, come out again alive? 
In answer to this last form of the question we can Say, 
that frogs can live some time in the esophagus. of a snake; 
and if so, why cannot young snakes do the same? for appa 
rently snakes have as great a power as frogs to live under — 
circumstances that ould deprive more highly organized anh 
mals of life.—To my proof about the frog : A 
Last summer Mr. Hyatt met with a common Striped-snake 
which had recently enjoyed a meal, indicated by a large 
bunch near the centre of the body. Mr. Hyatt was led, by — 
the very common desire which most naturalists have of 

ue as bid they belonged w a second brood. In # er” oH a hapa -m geme 
j ts, each egom 
igan embryo about se — 7 in length, i in — = sty were gaa 
he comm sirtalis) thirty-five inches in 
ipik, collected on the ne of ay, I found forty-two early babu young in the 
ores each ah mate ah ye fro ms half inches in length, making a co ned length 
ae length of the parent. Ee 13th I caught a 5 ta a 
ea 
preni Ga : 
had nine isu each poe en was three-fourths of an inch in contained am 
embryo two and a half inches long. On July 31st I captured anor of pe ai 
which had evidently just piepe dope of her brood, as there were but four po 
i rst by the young. These pl tnt each one o 
and a quarter in length, and contained dren makore aye and a half inches. ga 
August 30th, I found the eggs of the comm vernalis), seven 
number, just under the old bark and moss am a decayed stump in a meadow. 
gs, which p Jread partly out of the 
egg, and t before I hedi rea inch ng 3 
inch in Paik a and the young snakes were five and th rteen one hundredths 
lon ng. Several years ago a family of twenty-two young Watari ( 
m), each about eight inches = length, were vepe together and presen 
Cambridge, by Dr. Chaplin. These few notes 
that I have sary to T time of amd of our cabin and the number of to 
brood, and I c any of the readers of the NATURALIST who feel disposed 
collect female paie ‘aie hep Suty, August, and September, that they W 
very acceptable to our collectio: 




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