DEVELOPMENT. 93 



egg, indicate the place at which the young serpent is to 

 escape.* 



DEVELOPMENT. 



The 1/oung, on leaving the egg, usually differ from their 

 parents, besides their size, by a system of colouring more 

 vivid and more contrasted, by a head more blunt and more 

 rounded, by the largeness of the eyes, and by the less per- 

 fect state of the epidermis and its appendages. They are, 

 however, provided with teeth perfectly resembling those of 

 the adult, of which they are ready to make use ; and the 

 venomous kinds, instructed by instinct with the power of 

 their weapons, alternately elevate and lower their fangs, 

 and defend themselves against attacks, with that fury which 

 is innate in their race. It Avas long believed that the tail 

 of the young was shorter in proportion to the trunk than 

 in the adult, and that this member presented consequently 

 in them a smaller number of subcaudal plates. If this 

 were the case, we must suppose that new plates develope 

 themselves with age ; but as the number of plates corre- 

 sponds to the number of vertebrae, we must equally suppose 

 the production of new osseous pieces, as is seen in the Julus, 

 — a circumstance little probable in animals so high in the 

 scale of being as those of whom we treat. Besides, the 

 researches which I have made on this subject have proved 

 the contrary ; since among a great many individuals, the 

 young did not shew any difference from the adults in the 

 number of plates, but what might be considered as acci- 

 dental. To be sure of the fact, I have repeated these 

 observations on a great number of the most dissimilar 

 species, and have always obtained the same results. 



Shortly after their birth, the young Ophidians undergo 

 their first moult. This operation is repeated in our climate, 

 according to the observations of Lenz, five times in the 

 year, viz., every month from the end of April, to the begin- 

 ing of September ; whence it results that there is no cast- 



* See, on what relates to the development of the egg of serpents, the 

 excellent memoir of Professor Herholdt, illustrated by fine plates. 

 Oversigt, 1829, p. 30, fig. 2. 



