1887] The Massasauga and its Habits. 217 
half inches. It was hardened in alcohol while spirally twisted 
within the egg-membranes, and would when born probably have 
been somewhat longer. However, it is quite evident that Mr. 
Harvey’s specimens have made some growth. Having at hand 
another alcoholic specimen, seven and a half inches long, which 
probably had not long been born at the time of its capture, and 
observing in the posterior portion of its body a hard lump, it oc- 
curred to me to open the abdomen and see what the young snake 
had eaten. The whole intestine was empty, and the hard lump 
consisted of an elongated mass of egg-yolk two and a half inches 
long and about three-eighths of an inch in diameter. On such a 
store of highly-nutritious materials doubtless the young are ac- 
customed to subsist and grow until they are able to capture their 
own food. 
The question whether or not the young ever enter the mother’s 
mouth and stomach for refuge from danger and are permitted 
to come forth again has been much discussed. It would seem 
that the results of Mr. Goode’s inquiries ought to have settled 
the question, but there are still many sceptical persons. In the 
issue of Wature for December 24, 1885, a writer, in discussing the 
case of Pelias berus, suggests as an explanation of what has been 
observed, that possibly the young in their fright, against the 
mother’s will, rush into her mouth as they would into any other _ 
opening that might present itself; and that once having entered 
the stomach they may either never leave it again alive, or they 
may act there as an emetic and be violently ejected! Now, Mr, 
Harvey states that his young snakes were accustomed, from their 
birth up to the time they were a month old, to pass freely into and 
out of the mothers’ mouths. He does not know that they were 
ever all in the mothers’ stomachs at the same moment, but some- 
times three or four of them would be missing at once. Some- 
times one would be seen going down the throat while another 
was coming out. Occasionally one might be seen with his head 
sticking out of one corner of the mother’s mouth like a cigar, 
while in the other corner would be another’s head or possibly tail. 
In describing the mother’s movements, Mr. Harvey says, in a 
letter, that “the mother would sometimes lay her lower jaw on 
the floor, raise her upper jaw and with it her entire backbone, 
thus adjusting herself for them to play in and out... . They 
seemed to go in the full length of the stomach.” When the 
