446 SNAKES. 



that day the little creature only twisted about within its shell, 

 now its head, now its tail being visible outside, and with- 

 drawn again. The next day the wee snake made its debut 

 altogether, and began to crawl about {s'est mise a rainper). It 

 lost no time in exploring to the remotest corners of its 

 blanket, and by degrees showed itself to the world. During 

 the next four days eight were similarly hatched, the seven 

 remaining eggs, at various stages of development, having 

 apparently been crushed by superincumbent weight. 



The mother, on the 3rd of July, ate six more pounds of 

 beef, after her fast of nearly five months ; but with the 

 posterior part of her body still folded over the eggs. She 

 then quitted them, and displayed no further care, having 

 covered them for so long a time, and even defended them 

 with such assiduity. From ten to fourteen days after being 

 hatched, the young ones all changed their coats, and then 

 ate some little sparrows, throwing themselves upon them, 

 and constricting them like grown-up pythons. 



M. Valenciennes drew attention to the circumstance that 

 only in hot countries do serpents incubate their eggs, i.e. 

 only the serpents indigenous to hot countries. In temperate 

 ones, where the average warmth is insufficient, they resort to 

 artificial heat ; as, for instance, manure heaps, or decaying 

 vegetation. 



Thus was this important question settled, and the hatching 

 of the young brood in Paris became a chronological era in 

 ophidian annals. 



When therefore, in January 1862, twenty-one years after- 

 wards, a python seba in our own Gardens laid upwards of a 

 hundred eggs, immense interest and curiosity were excited 



