DO SNAKES INCUBATE ? 441 



Four common adders {Vipera bei^us) and several broods 

 of the Daboia have also been produced. 



The African viper of the coloured illustration is another 

 example, as having afforded opportunities for observation. 



In point of numbers we find the families varying from 

 three or four to upwards of a hundred. When the parent 

 is in health, the young are produced easily and rapidly. 

 Vipera nasicornis deposited her forty-six children within 

 about three hours. A Java snake (though not in our 

 London Ophidarium) produced twenty-four young ones in 

 twenty minutes. Anaconda, in April 1877, on the contrary, 

 exhibited considerable protraction, extruding bad eggs at 

 irregular intervals for many days. She will form the 

 subject of the next chapter. 



Incubation, or the hatching of eggs by the maternal 

 warmth, seems not to have been suspected by ophi- 

 ologists until a comparatively recent date ; but by the 

 non-scientific, the barbarian and the untutored natives of 

 hot countries, who see, but dream not that in future ages 

 what they saw and incidentally spoke of would be of 

 weight to the enlightened of as yet unexisting nations, — 

 by such the fact was known long ere its worth as a 

 fact was recognised. Yet, as has been already seen in these 

 pages, evidence given without intent and purpose often is 

 of scientific importance. Aristotle spoke of incubation; but 

 with classic writers the difficulty of sifting fact from fable 

 may cause the whole to be rejected. 



We owe to Zoological Societies and menageries the con- 

 firmation of the cojivaison of at least one species of serpents. 

 Subsequently we are told, 'The python only incubates/ 



