DO SNAKES INCUBATE 1 449 



After the scenes witnessed during those seven weeks, no 

 one could doubt the existence of maternal affection ; and 

 this was worth proving, as some authors would have per- 

 suaded us that snakes, and particularly the non-venomous 

 ones, manifest total indifference regarding their eggs. The 

 other important fact, an increased temperature, was also 

 again observable, proving that a serpent can really hatch 

 her eggs by the warmth of her own body. 



Last summer, 1881, another python laid about twenty 

 eggs at the London Ophidarium, but, alas ! neither were 

 any of that brood hatched. For future broods, now that 

 the fact of a raised temperature has been proved, the next 

 scientific triumph will be to develop the young ones, dispens- 

 ing with thermometers, and substituting perfect tranquillity, 

 with every possible aid and comfort to the mother. 



That snakes under these peculiar circumstances do appre- 

 ciate little 'delicate attentions,' ample proof has been afforded 

 in the Jamaica 'yellow boa' {CJiilobotJinis inornaUis), the 

 species which on several occasions has produced broods 

 in London, and the one in which Mr. P. H. Gosse verified 

 the marvellous instinct of withholding its eggs when circum- 

 stances were not propitious for their deposition. This is 

 one of the *Colubri' alluded to by T. Rymer Jones, 'which 

 may at pleasure be rendered ' {i.e. render themselves) ' vivi- 

 parous by retarding their laying.' 



But when Gosse published his work on Jamaica (185 i), 

 he did not appear to be aware of what Jones and Cuvicr 

 had said on this subject, but stated the result of his own 

 observations. He had become convinced that this species 

 of snake forms a sort of nest, and incubates its eggs ; when 



2 F 



