DO SNAKES INCUBATE 1 443 



second voyage de Sindbad le marin {nouvelle traduction 

 Aiiglaise des ^ Milk et une nuits' par W, Lane, torn. iii. p. 20) 

 le passage siiivant : Alors je regardai dans la caverne, et vis, 

 an fond, un enorme serpent eiidornii sur ses cenfs.' 



Here again, by accident, an ophidian habit known in the 

 8th century has been revealed to the scientific of the 

 19th century. 



In the 17th century, when the Royal Society was founded 

 and scientific information of all descriptions was welcome 

 in their published Transactions, the subject of serpent 

 brooding appeared in those pages. In vol. i. p. 138, a few 

 terse words exactly express what modern ophiologists have 

 of late years verified. * Several have taken notice that there 

 is a difference between the brooding of Snakes and Vipers ; 

 those laying their Eggs in Dung-hills by whose warmth 

 they are hatched, but these (Vipers) brooding their Eggs 

 within their Bellies, and bringing forth live Vipers. To 

 which may be added, — That some affirm to have seen Snakes 

 lye upon their Eggs as Hens sit upon theirs.' This was 

 published in 1665. 



The truth of ophidian incubation in at least one species 

 was finally established at the Musce d'Histoire at Paris 

 in 1 84 1, when Python bivittatns or Python a deux-raies — 

 named from two black lines diverging from the mouth — 

 incubated her fifteen eggs. This celebrated serpent has 

 enriched zoological annals in several points of interest. She 

 assisted to confirm the question of whether snakes drink, 

 and, as will be seen, whether they will take dead food. In 

 connection with the present subject, the observations made 

 by M. Dumcril during her incubation in the months of May 



