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TEE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.— SUPPLEMENT. 



ing her care and vigilance so long as she was 

 incubating, when her snakelings were born she 

 took no notice of them. This may not always be 

 the case. Vipers we know are extremely watch- 

 ful over their young; other snakes are often seen 

 accompanied by a young brood ; and in the Ja- 

 maica boa maternal affection is exhibited in no 

 slight degree. A lady visiting the Gardens com- 

 passionated one of these young families on the 

 gravelly floor of their cage, and brought a quan- 

 tity of cotton-wool, which was placed in one cor- 

 ner. She was rewarded by seeing the luxury 

 fully appreciated, mother and little ones all hud- 

 dling into it immediately. 



That these non-venomous snakes thus produce 

 their young under abnormal conditions is further 

 confirmed by the varying size and appearance of 

 the offspring, and by their being more or less en- 

 veloped in the shell-covering. Some are born 

 quite coiled in the ruptured shell, others with 

 portions of it clinging about them, and others, 

 again, entirely free. Sometimes they are, as it 

 were, imbedded in the coriaceous covering. This 

 was conspicuously the case with the anaconda's 

 progeny, but her young ones had every appear- 

 ance of having been a long while dead. The 

 first of the six was freer from the shell than the 

 others, and about a foot and a half in length. 



Snake-life is altogether marvelous. The pow- 

 er which some snake-mothers possess of retarding 

 the deposition of their eggs, and, we have reason 

 to believe, sometimes even the young when cir- 

 cumstances are unpropitious for her to produce 

 them, seems to us specially curious. Chilobothrus 

 is known to have had both eggs and a living brood. 

 So has Coronella Icevis. Of the latter, some Ger- 

 man ophiologists state that it is " always vivipa- 

 rous ; " others " occasionally " so. In her native 

 Hampshire woods she has been seen with a young 

 brood about her ; but there seems no satisfactory 



evidence of any eggs having been found. Time 

 and careful notings only can substantiate this and 

 many other singular facts regarding these "wise" 

 and " subtle " creatures, hitherto surrounded by 

 prejudice and but little studied. We, not well 

 versed in Ophidian biographies, might have ex- 

 pected the anaconda to lay eggs because her cous- 

 in the pythoness did so ; and we might have also 

 speculated upon her incubating them, as the py- 

 thon did. But she has produced a perfectly de- 

 veloped though dead family of six, instead ; a cir- 

 cumstance of so much interest to naturalists, that 

 the loss of the young ones is to be regretted though 

 not wondered at. Captured from her native la- 

 goons, and shut out from the light of day in a box 

 just large enough to contain her, this " good swim- 

 mer" arrives alive — thus proving her amazing 

 powers of endurance ; but she has had no fitting 

 place in which to deposit her young, and they 

 died unborn. Still it is a noteworthy fact in the 

 annals of zoology. At first, from the result of ob- 

 servation, the incubation of the python was "sus- 

 pected;" then it became confirmed ; and the birth 

 of young coronellas also. From this it is evident 

 that we should cease to declare that only vipers pro- 

 duce live young ; or, according to the original signi- 

 fication of the word, a boa, a coronella, and several 

 other non-venomous snake3 would be " vipers ! " 



Again, it is remarkable that these peculiari- 

 ties of reproduction are not confined to particu- 

 lar families and genera ; because some coronellas 

 lay eggs, some incubate them, and others bring 

 forth a live brood. So also, while some of the 

 Boaidce lay eggs, the anaconda is completely vi- 

 viparous. 



We would venture to urge upon those lovers 

 of Nature who dwell " remote from towns " the 

 value of careful observation and a noting down 

 of what appears unusual, even of the habits of 

 the much-persecuted snake. 



— Chambers's Journal. 



