442 SNAKES. 



this snake being generally mentioned as the one exception ; 

 and only within a very few years has maternal affection been 

 accredited to any others. Mr. P. H. Gosse was informed 

 by the negroes in Jamaica of the habits of the yellow boa. 

 Sir Joseph Fayrer was informed by the jugglers that* over 

 and over again they had dug cobras out of their holes 

 sitting on tJieir eggs' Dr. E. Nicholson was informed ' on 

 trustworthy authority that the Hamadryad has been found 

 coiled upon a nest of evidently artificial construction.' He 

 thinks snakes always watch over their eggs, and frequent 

 the locality where they have deposited them. The keeper 

 at the Gardens confirms this by his own observations. 

 * They do care for their eggs in their own way/ he assured 

 me, and display unusual irritability and wildness at such 

 times.^ In menageries, however, their habits are always 

 more or less artificial ; they cannot seek spots for them- 

 selves, or exercise maternal instinct beyond doing the best 

 they can under the circumstances. Anything in the way 

 of extra indulgences, such as soft rubbish, moss, or sand, 

 is duly appreciated when eggs are about to be deposited, 

 and we find maternal ophidians resort at once to this. 



In a footnote, vol. xvi. p. 65 of the Annales des sciences 

 natiirelles, we read : — ' // parait que V incubation des serpents 

 est un fait si connu dans V Inde, qu'il entre inane dans lenr 

 contes populaires. M. Roidin vi'a fait reniarqner dans le 



^ Since this was written, Dr. Stradling informed me that a very tame ring 

 snake in his Reptilium laid some eggs and coiled herself upon them zealously (or 

 some days. A remarkable proof of her care for them was seen in her trying to 

 bite when disturbed. He had never before known Coluber natrix to display this 

 anger. In the Zoologist of September 1882, the Doctor contributed a long and 

 important account of this incubation with its attendant features. 



