So much has been said of the burrowing habits of the slow-worms, that I must mention a remarkable exception. Never did I see mine ascend, except when attempting to escape; nor, when placed among the plants on a flower-stand, did they ever raise their head, but would work their way downwards, clinging and holding on by their tail till they reached the floor. Always down was their instinct, even down the stairs on several occasions; never up. But since the completion of this chapter, some slow-worms have been deposited at the Zoological Gardens that evince a climbing tendency; and this strikes me as being so novel a feat that I add a line. The little creatures—one of which is of a pale flesh-colour, almost white—live in a cage with some tree frogs, behind the door on entering the Reptilium. Here they are, May 1882, often seen lodged in the branches of the shrub, and reposing there at ease, as if in quiet enjoyment. The ‘white’ one I first observed in the tree, and subsequently others. So frequently may they be seen reposing in this way among the leaves, that to climb seems to have become a confirmed habit or taste; and in concluding the history of Anguis fragilis, I record this singular diversity of habit as one other strong feature in common with the giant Anaconda.
CHAPTER XXVII.
DO SNAKES AFFORD A REFUGE TO THEIR YOUNG?
THE question, ‘Do vipers swallow their young in times of danger?’ is one less easy to solve to the satisfaction of the unbelievers than some of the preceding inquiries, because the proof demanded is an almost unattainable one. ‘Bring me a viper with its mouth tied up, and all her young ones in her throat, and then I will believe you,’ say the sceptics. Now, in the first place, a man does not go hedging and ditching, or to reap corn, nor does a gentleman go to his field sports, or for a country stroll, ready provided with a cord and a bag and an assistant for the express purpose of capturing maternal vipers, who at sight of him receive all their little ones into their mouths; and, in the second place, if he did so, making it the one business of his walk to seek for and entrap such vipers, he might spend a great many summers in the search before his trouble was rewarded. Even were he so fortunate, it is doubtful whether he would be believed by all persons; for viper-swallowing, like ‘the Great Sea Serpent,’ has been a subject so contemptuously dismissed that investigation is arrested, and few in England would now risk their reputation by committing their names to print in connection with it. It is much to be regretted that this has of late years been the case with several English publications whose columns should be open to a fair examination of evidence on all zoological questions. The influence of such journals, therefore, checks progress; for until prejudice is got rid of, there can be no advancement in any science.
As is well known, the late Mr. Frank Buckland was to the last sceptical on this question. His specialty was not ophiology; but the mass of readers do not stop to inquire about this; and he, being a popular writer as well as a popular character, was accredited by thousands who quoted him, while themselves no naturalists, nor in any position to form an independent opinion. Some contemporary journals unfortunately display the same prejudices, even at the time of writing, causing zoological publications, which should embrace every branch of biology, to be devoted almost exclusively to the specialties of an editor.
Happily this scepticism is not universal. In the American publications devoted to zoology, information in every branch is welcomed as worthy of consideration; and though truth has often to be sifted out from a very gigantic pile of rubbish, still it is worth the search; and we can but feel that the rapid advance of our Transatlantic relatives in every branch of science is due, in a great measure, to the dismissal of prejudice and to the encouragement of every new idea.
So far as snakes are concerned, their field is wide, it is true. In England our observations are limited to our one viper, whereas America is the land of snakes, no less than are India and Australia; and while our native viper is growing rarer every year, the opportunities for observation in the Western World are wherever a new settlement is planted.