336 SNAKES, 



Those who have kept snakes tell us that the tame ones 

 will even leave the slough in the hand, if you hold them 

 during the process, and permit them to pass gently through 

 the closed fingers. Owen, in his Anatomy of the Vertebrates y 

 mentions as a not unfrequent action, that when the head is 

 free from the slough the snake brings forward the tail, and 

 coils it transversely round the head, then pushes itself through 

 the coil, threading its body through this caudal ring. 



But we have left our captive w^ith still about a foot and a 

 half of garment to get rid of, and this is not much less 

 difficult to accomplish than the head-gear. He has arrived 

 at the last pair of ribs, and now, without such agency to free 

 the tail cuticle, he more than ever needs some opposing 

 obstacle. He has only his blanket, however, to pass under ; 

 and at last, by dragging himself along, the process is com- 

 pleted, the extreme few inches sliding off unreversed. 



On several subsequent occasions the Hamadryad has left 

 the entire tail, often nearly all of it, unreversed, as do many 

 other snakes. Sometimes by a succession of jerks they 

 manage to get rid of this portion ; sometimes a comrade 

 happens to pass over the slough — a great assistance, as 

 affording resistance. I observed this particularly in a small 

 constrictor, one of the three that entrapped two or three 

 sparrows in as many coils at the same moment. In this case 

 the whole process occupied less than ten minutes. After 

 rubbing its head against the gravel, and turning it completely 

 over to free itself from the upper shields, its ribs took chief 

 part as usual, and I noted particularly that each pair moved 

 in concert, and not alternately. This little snake went round 

 close under the slanting edge of his bath-pan, which afforded 



