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While walking over a dry mesa, yesterday, I noticed a small
snake slowly crawling to the shelter of a mesquit bush.

On capturing it, I found it to be of a very dark olive-green color,
in large, square pattern, the lines between the plaids being of
lighter green; underneath, white, with very dark-green blotches.
Its head was very dark green, and rather small; it had small fangs.
The length of the snake was nineteen inches. Noticing that the
body seemed much distended, I opened it, and found, nicely

packed away inside, the body of an ordinary, brown, striped
“grass snake,” as we call them here, twenty-two inches long. This
green snake may be a new species of snake-eating serpent. The
grass snake is very swift, and I am puzzled to know how the
green snake caught it; it was swallowed head-first.

170 IGUANA  •  VOLUME 15, NUMBER 3  •  SEPTEMBER 2008 HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVES

H I S T O R I C A L  P E R S P E C T I V E S

Snake Eats Snake1

C.W. Kempton

Oro Blanco, Arizona

Apropos of the interesting notes on snakes, lately published
in your columns, I would like to relate the following:—
I think it was about the middle of last June that our little

boy, who is interested in collecting various natural history
objects, brought home a full-grown water-snake. He procured a
box of generous dimensions, one whole side of which he cov-
ered with wire-screen, such as is used in windows. A small slide
was made in the top of the box, so that the porcelain tray (such
as photographers use for developing trays), which he placed
within, could be kept filled with water, and also for the intro-
duction of food.

This box was thenceforward “the snake den,” and here the
snake passed the remainder of its existence. A small frog, several
grasshoppers, and various insects were dropped through the open-
ing in the top of the box from time to time, but we are not sure
whether the snake ever deigned to taste a morsel during her entire
captivity; certain it is, however, that if she did finally taste the frog,
she did not find it a very appetizing meal, for the little frog
hopped about in the box for days and days without any food
itself. It was just as apt to rest upon the body of the snake as any-
where else, each seemingly indifferent to the presence of the other.
The grasshoppers also were entirely ignored. The snake was left in
the box, in the back-yard, during the months of July and August,
with no care whatever, we being absent during that time, and the
little boy who had agreed to look after it having deserted it.

What was our surprise, after our return early in September,
to find one day that Mrs. Snake had giv[en] birth to thirteen lit-
tle ones. Such a little, writhing, squirming, snaky mass! The lit-
tle snakes were about five inches long, and soon became quite
active. In the course of a few weeks they were much more ready
to take their own part than their mother seemed to be. She had

probably learned by experience that it was of little or no avail to
“fight back,” and contented herself with running out her forked
tongue when irritated, and then trying to creep out of harm’s way.
The little ones, on the contrary, would crawl up the screen as far
as possible, and when pushed off, with a straw or wire introduced
through the screen, they would at once crawl up again, run out
their little tongues, and show all the rashness of youth.

Wondering how far the maternal instincts were developed
in the mother snake, whether she would try to defend or pro-
tect them, the young snakes were frequently irritated, in order
to arouse, if possible, her defensive propensities; it was all to no
purpose; she seemed a heartless mother, ignoring wholly that her
offspring were in danger. A long wire was often thrust into the
box, and under a little snake, which could thus be dangled
before the old snake in a most irritating manner. But, whether
from fear on her own part, or utter indifference to the welfare of
her young, she paid no attention whatever to the provocation.

The mother snake lived until the middle of October, when
she succumbed to the white frosts of autumn.

A few weeks later two of the young snakes fell asleep; one
of them was given to a little schoolmate, who put it in his pocket
and took it to school, when, 1o! and behold! the warmth from
his body resuscitated it, and the “bad boy” played with it in
school. To the teacher’s question as to what he had, he replied,
“A shoestring!”

Learning thus that possibly the remaining little snakes
might sleep (hibernate) through the winter, soil, small stones,
dead leaves, etc., were placed in the box, and they crept away out

Snake Story2

Mrs. W.A. Kellerman

Columbus, Ohio

2 Originally published in Science, Vol. 21, No. 520 (20 January 1893),
pp. 36–37.

1 Originally published in Science, Vol. 20, No. 498 (19 August 1892),
p. 107.

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