THE COMMON SNAKE. 49 



mass of eggs united wherever they touch each other. I have 

 heard of forty eggs being found in these deposits ; yet, notwith- 

 standing such provision for multitudes, the snake, generally 

 speaking, is not a very common animal.* 



Having deposited her eggs, the female appears to 

 have no further care or thought of her progeny. She 

 neither watches over them to preserve them from 

 injury, nor, when hatched, does she take them under 

 tuition in the torturous policy of a snake's existence. 

 The incubation of snakes was a knotty point widely 

 discussed when the python of the Zoological Gar- 

 dens laid eggs, which were never hatched. 



This snake, in common with others, changes its 

 skin at intervals, but not, as has been stated, at 

 regular periods, or once a year ; but sometimes four 

 or five times during the year, and often less, ac- 

 cording to circumstances. In this " sloughing " 

 process the reptile bursts the cuticle about its neck, 

 draws out its head, the old skin is thrust back, and 

 the snake crawls out. In this process the skin is 

 turned inside out, and left on the grass to scare 

 unwary females into the belief that they have seen 

 a snake, little dreaming that they have only been 

 shuddering at its old clothes. 



What does the snake eat f — Undoubtedly it de- 

 lights in frogs, young birds, birds' eggs, and even 

 mice. Imagine the little shudder and start in which 



* Knapp's " Journal of a Naturalist." p. 306. 



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