where the male may be found. Male snakes, though appearing so sluggish,
are amorous; for many have been observed crowding round the same
female, and even round her dead body. They are not known to fight
together from rivalry. Their intellectual powers are higher than might
have been anticipated. In the Zoological Gardens they soon learn not to
strike at the iron bar with which their cages are cleaned; and Dr. Keen
of Philadelphia informs me that some snakes which he kept learned after
four or five times to avoid a noose, with which they were at first
easily caught. An excellent observer in Ceylon, Mr. E. Layard, saw (60.
Rambles in Ceylon, in Annals and Magazine of Natural History, 2nd
series, vol. ix. 1852, p. 333.) a cobra thrust its head through a
narrow hole and swallow a toad. With this encumbrance he could not
withdraw himself; finding this, he reluctantly disgorged the precious
morsel, which began to move off; this was too much for snake philosophy
to bear, and the toad was again seized, and again was the snake, after
violent efforts to escape, compelled to part with its prey. This time,
however, a lesson had been learnt, and the toad was seized by one leg,
withdrawn, and then swallowed in triumph.
The keeper in the Zoological Gardens is positive that certain snakes,
for instance Crotalus and Python, distinguish him from all other
persons. Cobras kept together in the same cage apparently feel some
attachment towards each other. (61. Dr. Gunther, Reptiles of British
India, 1864, p. 340.)
It does not, however, follow because snakes have some reasoning power,
strong passions and mutual affection, that they should likewise be
endowed with sufficient taste to admire brilliant colours in their
partners, so as to lead to the adornment of the species through sexual
selection. Nevertheless, it is difficult to account in any other manner
for the extreme beauty of certain species; for instance, of the
coral-snakes of S. America, which are of a rich red with black and
yellow transverse bands. I well remember how much surprise I felt at
the beauty of the first coral-snake which I saw gliding across a path
in Brazil. Snakes coloured in this peculiar manner, as Mr. Wallace
states on the authority of Dr. Gunther (62. Westminster Review, July
1st, 1867, p. 32.), are found nowhere else in the world except in S.
America, and here no less than four genera occur. One of these, Elaps,
is venomous; a second and widely-distinct genus is doubtfully venomous,
and the two others are quite harmless. The species belonging to these
381