332 . SNAKES. 



Almost invariably, soon after a long journey, and on 

 being established in a new home, a snake re-attires. We 

 have seen what their travelling cages are ! Closely nailed 

 up, and often in air-tight boxes in which the poor things 

 are tumbled over and over with as little mercy as ceremony 

 during removal from one conveyance to another, they 

 arrive — as in the case of the African viper (coloured illus- 

 tration) — in such a pitiable plight that it is next to impos- 

 sible to identify them. Another almost invariable rule is 

 sloughing soon after birth — that is, in from a week to a fort- 

 night ; also, during early and rapid growth, the young snake 

 will change frequently. Most ophiologists fix upon two 

 months as an average time, taking one snake with another ; 

 for while one may desquamate every few weeks, another 

 may keep his coat unsoiled for six months. 



Sir Joseph Fayrer made careful notes on this subject. He 

 had one cobra which changed in rather less than a month — 

 viz. first on Oct. 17th, next on Nov. lOth, and again on Dec. 

 7th. A Liophis at the London Gardens changed every few 

 weeks, and a Ptyas — he of the lecture exhibition (p. 214) — 

 changed almost once a month on an average. 



A curiously beautiful object is the cast-off coat, and well 

 worth an examination. You discern the exact form of the 

 reptile's head, mouth, and nostrils, the exquisitely transparent 

 eye-covering, the various forms of the overlapping or 

 imbricated folds or * scales,' and how admirably the broad 

 ventral plates are adapted for locomotion ; particularly 

 noteworthy too is the perfect reversion of this coat of some 

 feet or some yards in length, turned inside out as you may 

 turn a sleeve. 



