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( 365 ) 
CORRESPONDENCE. 
%* The Editor does not hold himself responsible for statements of fa&s or 
opinions expressed in Correspondence, or in Articles bearing the signature 
of their respective authors. 
DO SNAKES SHELTER THEIR YOUNG IN 
THEIR THROATS? 
To the Editor of the journal of Science . 
Sir, — May I intrude on your space to reply briefly to the letter 
of Mr. James Simson, of New York, in the May number of your 
Journal, with reference to the question “ Do some snakes offer a 
refuge to their young, in their own throats ? ” 
First, I would thank Mr. Simson for sending me his interesting 
work, duly forwarded by Messrs. Griffith and Farran. I must 
also, under present circumstances, express regret at my omission 
of Mr. Simson’s painstaking investigations on this interesting 
question in my work on “ Snakes.” Truth to tell I did see the 
English edition of Simson’s “ Contributions to Natural History” 
soon after its publication in 1875, and even quoted it in the first 
sketch of my 27th chapter ; but I found that references to it must 
partake too much of the nature of a controversy (Mr. Simson 
will pardon me for not coinciding entirely with his ideas), and 
that important quotations from the “ Reports of the American 
Convention on Snakes,” held in 1872, as well as those from our 
English zoological journals, already occupied more than the space 
allotted to other chapters. My task was indeed no easy one, 
some deference being due to certain able zoologists in England 
who doubt the existence of any maternal affedtion in reptiles. 
By this time Mr. Simson has, I trust, been able to look at my 
work, which can be obtained from Messrs. Dutton and Co., of 
New York, and he will therein discover that “ a careful examina- 
tion of the anatomy of the snake, to ascertain the physical pecu- 
liarities connected with the phenomenon described,” has been 
made again and again ; and that there was no indication of the 
“ two throats in the female snake,” as suggested by Mr. Simson, 
but that there seemed every possibility of ample refuge in the 
expansile oesophagus. The young are supposed to go no 
further. 
