450 SNAKES. 



subsequently, one that he had in captivity produced living 

 young, he was staggered. 'Is it possible,' he wrote, 'that 

 a serpent normally oviparous, might retain the eggs within 

 the oviduct until the birth of her young, when circumstances 

 were not propitious ? ' 



' Is it possible,' again asks an American naturalist, so 

 lately as 1879, — ' can it be true that Heterodon platyrhinos and 

 Tropidonotiis sipedon ' (both harmless) 'are sometimes vivipar- 

 ous and sometimes ovoviviparous ? ' This writer, F. W. Cragin, 

 had been told that the two above species were ovoviviparous 

 (a word of no value as a definition), and he writes in the 

 Avierican Naturalist, vol. xiii. p. 710, that out of twenty-two 

 eggs of Heterodon, ploughed up out of the sand in Long 

 Island, one he put into alcohol to preserve it as found, and 

 the others were hatched on the fourth day, showing that 

 sometimes at least it is oviparous, as supposed are some of 

 the EiitcBnias. 



Mr. Gosse describes one Jamaica boa in confinement, that 

 was ill and inactive, refusing food. It was unusually vicious, 

 and bit hard enough to draw blood, the effect of the fine 

 teeth being like a severe cat-scratch. It rendered itself 

 further offensive when disturbed, by emitting an insufferable 

 odour, and at length gave birth to living young. 



That this snake when at liberty lays eggs, he had seen, 

 and in a nest of artificial construction. One that he knew 

 of was excavated in a bank. The snake was seen issuing 

 from a narrow passage just large enough to admit it. Dry, 

 crumbled earth had been discharged at the entrance of the 

 passage, where it lay in a heap. The bank being dug into, 

 the passage was found to lead to a cavity lined with soft 



