36 REPTILES AND BATRACHIANS. 



inches down the throat, where, indeed, owing to the expanding 

 ribs and the elastic covering of scales, there is more room to kick 

 than in the jaws and throat of the snake. Suffocation, however, 

 soon terminates the struggles, and the process has not lasted 

 many minutes. Sometimes if a frog is very large and unmanage- 

 able, and the process of swallowing it is prolonged, you may see 

 the snake's glottis advanced, this entrance to the trachea opening 

 to admit air, and closing again to exclude injurious particles of 

 dust or what not. A study of much interest is this, as also to 

 watch the snake's head and jaws getting into shape again after 

 the enormous expansion. 



The ring snake is oviparous, and lays a string of eggs, from 

 fifteen to twenty-five, about the size of pigeons' eggs. The shells 

 are of a leathery texture, whitish, and usually deposited in moist and 

 decaying vegetation, or a manure heap, where the artificial warmth 

 will assist their development. They are hatched in about eight 

 weeks on an average, but influenced by the season and tempera- 

 ture. In a cool summer the hatching is retarded. Occasions have 

 been known when the eggs are not hatched at all the same year, 

 but have remained during the winter, and hatched by the returning 

 warmth of the spring. In such cases the eggs are more liable to 

 be discovered and wantonly destroyed. We occasionally see it 

 recorded in provincial papers that a number of snakes that had 

 hibernated in company, as they usually do, had been unearthed 

 by labourers, and that among them were large quantities of eggs. 

 These would have been hatched as soon as the sun gained 

 sufficient power ; and in the meantime the eggs themselves were 

 undergoing a kind of hibernation, in as much as vitality in them, 

 and their consequent development, had been arrested. The 

 young snakes are at first nearly black, with the exception of the 

 collar, which gleams conspicuously by the contrast. After 

 casting their first cuticle, which is generally within a week, they 

 begin to eat ; when very young frogs must be found for them. 

 With each change of coat they assume a brighter tint, and they 

 change frequently during the early period of rapid growth, soon 

 assuming their natural colours, and showing their golden ring and 

 their round bright eyes to much advantage. This " ring," how- 

 ever, varies much in shade or in intensity. Where several of the 

 snakes are together you will see the collar of some nearly white, 

 in some very pale, in others bright yellow, or absent entirely. It 

 is as often of a creamy-white as a gold colour, but always set off 

 by the deep black behind it. 



For a cage for your tame snakes you cannot do better than 

 adopt the plan of glass cages like those at the Zoological Gardens, 



