DO SNAKES INCUBATE? 445 



she drank no less than five times during her brooding. 

 Sloughing occurred on the 4th April. Generally gentle and 

 quiet, she became excited on the 5th May, and tried to bite 

 any one who approached her. Her condition being evident, 

 she had been left alone and undisturbed in her cage ; and at 

 six o'clock on the morning of the 6th of May, laid an Qgg, 

 fourteen others being deposited by half-past nine A.M. The 

 eggs were soft at first, of an oval form, and an ashy-grey 

 colour, but afterwards became rounder and of a clear white. 

 They were all separate. She collected them in a cone-shaped 

 pile, and rolled herself round them, so as to completely hide 

 every one, her head being at the summit of the cone. For 

 fifty-six days she kept perfectly motionless, excepting when 

 manifesting impatience if any one attempted to touch her 

 eggs. Notwithstanding this want of trustfulness on the part 

 of the interesting invalid, M. Dumeril achieved some im- 

 portant experiments regarding her temperature. 



Reptiles are ' obedient to the surrounding temperature,' we 

 may repeat, but in the present instance there was warmth in 

 her perceptible to the touch {ujie chaleiir 7iotable). The 

 temperature of the cage was 20° (Reaumur ?), that under the 

 woollen coverlet where she reposed was 21° ; but in her coils, 

 where M. Dumeril inserted one of the best thermometers 

 that could be procured, she was 41°, and always of a higher 

 temperature by some 20°. Placing the thermometer either 

 upon her or between the folds of her body, only a slight 

 variation was perceptible, but it was invariably higher than 

 the surrounding air. 



On the 2nd of July one of the shells split {la coque sest 

 fendillce), and the head of a little python appeared. During 



