Nature.

Manawatu Standard, Volume IV, Issue 252, 20 September 1884, Page 5 (Supplement)

Nature.

Sol^piFacts About Snakes.

Cithbbine C. Hopusy, who has written a great deal on snaked- and their habits, came te America from England last summer with the intention of obtaining, if possible, some new faots and illustrations of snake life. She writes to Land and Water that one objeot of her ambition was to procure for one of the ■ museums a mother snake with her brood refuged m her throat; but, though hitherto unsuccessful, she has reasonable hopes that a thns refuged family' of little ophidians will be j furnished- to more than one of the national museums next summer, enthusiasts promising that no efforts shall be wanting to afford ocular proof of this maternal instinct. That it bhould still be doubted anywhere arouses the re of many m America, she adds, who have for years been offering testimony as eyewitnesses. What is now desired is that observations should be extended to Africa, India, and Australia; because if the habit of a mother snake receiving her young into her throat for refuge should be confined to this continent only and to England, it is a remarkable feature m ophidian history for the most learned biologists to work out. Bat, as regards Australia, some few oases arc -not wanting. A gentleman, who is a great traveller, an ardent sportsman, assured the writer that he had himself seen an alarmed black snake (probably Pseudechis porphyriaau) open her mouth and thus receive her young. .On Bhooting her the young ones escaped from the mouth again. A gentleman who writes m the American Field, tinder the name of "Snipe," described " a dark-colored snake of about six feet long" opening its mouth and receiving its young. Watching for reed birds— the "Bob-o'-link V, of the Eastern States, and the "rice bunting " of the South— he was lying flat on the ground with' his gun, m the latter part of August, when about ten feet off he saw the shake with her mouth wide open, and the young ones hurrying m as if eager to hide themselves. 1 He watched her for some minutes, when his friend who i was shooting with- him came near and disturbed the snake, which then began to mo^e off with the bidden snakelings, while a number of -little' brother and sister snakes, " not yet i taken; m," followed : closely. ' 11 Snipe " then took aim and shot off its head, and on opening the snake found -the young ones all alive, coiled m a ball near the throat ; while further down were a bird and a meadow mouse, recently swallowed. He relates the incident m opposition to the hypothesisAfaat Bnakes, being cannibals, might swallow Mir young for food, and describes this mother as patiently waiting with hSrmouth open, jail action being confined to the eager young offiw.