Chap. XII.] . REPTILES. 29 



appearing so sluggish, are amorous ; for many have beer* 

 observed crowding round the same female, and even round 

 the dead body of a female. They are not known to fight 

 together from rivalry. Their intellectual powers are high- 

 er than might have been anticipated. An excellent ob- 

 server in Ceylon, Mr. E. Layard, 63 saw 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 philoso- 

 phy 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 

 learned, and the toad was seized by one leg, withdrawn, 

 and then swallowed in triumph." 



It does not, however, follow because snakes have some 

 reasoning power and strong passions, that they should 

 likewise be endowed with sufficient taste to admire bril- 

 liant colors in their partners, so as to lead to the adorn- 

 ment of the species through sexual selection. Neverthe- 

 less, it is difficult to account in any other manner for the 

 extreme beauty of certain species ; for instance, of the 

 coral-snakes of South 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 

 colored in this peculiar manner, as Mr. Wallace states on 

 the authority of Dr. Gtinther, 64 are found nowhere else in 



their rattles as a sexual call, by which the two sexes find each other. I 

 do not know whether this suggestion rests on any direct observations. 

 These snakes pair in the Zoological Gardens, but the keepers have never 

 observed that they use their rattles at this season more than at any 

 other. 



53 "Rambles in Ceylon," 'Annals and Mag. of Nat. Hist.' 2d series 

 vol. ix. 1852, p. 333. 



64 ' Westminster Review,' July 1, 1867, p. 32. 



