232 MTSCELLAXEA. 



stomacli was quite empty, as also the intestine, with the exception 

 of the lower portion, which contained some yelk from the included 

 viteUus." 



" The circumstance that in some of the specimens a portion of 

 \'itelline sac was still external to the body, is, I think, adverse to the 

 conclusion that any of them had left the uterine cavity. For were 

 the young ones born with the vitellus thus exposed to the rough 

 friction unavoidable in locomotion, on land, such a delicate structure 

 could hardly but suifer injury." 



AVith reference to the circumstance that the yoimg vipers ap- 

 peai'ed to be moulting, Dr. Davy remarks : — 



" That this was very distinctly the case in two specimens, the 

 fine cuticle readily separating and exposing a surface of a brighter 

 hue." But this moulting he apprehends is not incompatible with 

 their ha\-ing been taken from the abdominal (or uterine) cavity. 



" May it not be supposed," he observes, " that the yoimg of the 

 snake before birth are subject to several moults, necessary as they 

 increase in size after the integument has been fully formed." In some 

 foetal vipers dissected by him less advanced than those in question 

 such was the condition of the skin ; the colouring and markings were 

 distinct and precisely similar to those of their parent. In these 

 instances also the poison fangs though formed could not be detected 

 until the specimens were dried, when, the soft enveloping tissue 

 shrinking, their points came into view. 



On the supposition that JVIi*. Norman's gamekeeper was not de- 

 ceived in what he saw, but that he really witnessed the swallo'^'ing of 

 two or three of its brood by the parent Yiper, may it not probably 

 be assumed that she actually devoiu-ed them ? A primd facie objec- 

 tion to this supposition, lies in the fact above pointed out by Dr. Davy, 

 that the specimens of yoimg examined by him were in an immature 

 condition and had not breathed, and consequently that they had not 

 been born at all. To this it may be answered, that it is by no means 

 certain that the Yiper produces the whole of its brood at once. The 

 young may be issued one or two at a time as they reach maturity, 

 the rest remaining in the uterine cavity. Those which were swal- 

 lowed might have been more perfect than the individuals examined by 

 Dr. Davy. 



That excellent observer, considers it not at all improbable that the 

 parent snake may occasionally devour its own young when pressed 

 by hunger, and if so, that the seeing it in the act may have led to tlie 

 popular notion. In order to show the occasionally stupid and blind 

 voracity manifested by Reptilian animals, Dr. Davy relates an instance, 

 in Ceylon, of one snake in confinement with another swallowing his 

 companion though about the same size as itself. And an incident in 

 the same island was related to him by the person who witnessed it 

 of a Python owing its death to an attempt to swallow a Deer, the 

 horns sticking in its throat. Other instances of the same kind might 

 be cited, and amongst these, as noticed by Dr. Davy, one which 

 occurred in the Zoological Gardens a few years since of a Python 



