2 1 6 SNAKES. 



body in the climbing snakes, and that they had no more 

 difficulty in gliding up a tree or a wall in a straight line than 

 on the ground. In the Anecdotes of Serpents^ revised for the 

 Messrs. W. & R. Chambers, of Edinburgh, in 1875, from 

 the tract by the late John Keast Lord, I also recorded 

 my observations on this peculiarity. 



Some young Jamaica boas crawled to the top of their 

 cage as soon as they were born. I saw them the same day ; 

 held them, as well as it was possible to hold threads of 

 quicksilver ; felt them, too, for the exceedingly juvenile 

 constrictors tied up my fingers cleverly. So did some 

 young boa constrictors, born alive at the Gardens, June 30, 

 1877. They were from fifteen to twenty inches in length, 

 and had teeth sufficiently developed to draw blood from 

 Holland's hand, showing fight and ingratitude at the same 

 time. They were exceedingly active, and fed on young mice, 

 which they constricted instinctively. One of them, known as 

 * Totsey,' subsequently hwig for her portrait, as on p. 201. 



In vol. XX. of Nature, p. 528, is a very clever paper on 

 the progression of snakes, by H. F. Hutchinson, who has 

 evidently observed them closely. He arrives at the con- 

 clusion that they have three different modes, viz. 'on smooth 

 plane surfaces by means of their rib-legs ; ' . . . ' through 

 high grass by rapid, almost invisible, sinuous onward move- 

 ment, like swimming ; ' in climbing straight walls or ascend- 

 ing smooth surfaces by creating a vacuum with the ventral 

 scales. He reminds us that cobras, kraits, the rat snake, 

 and other slender and active kinds are constantly found 

 on house roofs, walls, straight smooth trees, etc., and asks 

 how they got there. He has seen the 'abdominal scales 



