AN ADVENTURE. at 
the female Python to coil around her eggs is to protect them from 
being eaten by wild animals, such as mungooses, rats, and mice, 
and by Nilotic Monitor Lizards, otherwise known as “‘ Leguans,”’ 
or “ Iguanas.” 
One blazing hot summer day in Natal, we came across a Python 
basking in the sun. On seeing us approach it vanished down a 
hole, which proved to be that of an ant-eater, otherwise known 
as an Aard-vark (Orycteropus afer), which is an animal as big as 
an adult pig. We filled the entrance with boulders, and wandered 
away. Returning anon with some muscular Zulus, we dug 
vigorously for a couple of hours or so. Eventually we came 
across the snake coiled up in front of a pile of eggs at the end of 
the hole, in the lair formerly occupied by the Aard-vark. We 
captured the mother Python alive, and counted the eggs, which 
numbered forty-eight. Breaking open two we found them to be 
partly hatched. There were indications which showed the 
Python had been lying coiled up in front of its eggs for some 
time. 
We kept a large Python in captivity in the Port Elizabeth 
Museum, during the month of November, and it laid a batch of 
forty-four eggs. These eggs were elliptical and about the size of 
those of a goose, and contained a yellowish substance similar to the 
yolk of fowls’ eggs, but lighterincolour. They weighed 53 ounces. 
The “ shell ”’ was not hard and brittle like the shells of birds’ eggs. 
It was soft and leathery in texture, and creamy-white in colour. 
When the young Pythons hatch out, the mother takes no 
apparent heed of them, and moves off, her maternal duties being 
ended. The young scatter in different directions, their instinct 
impelling them to seek for food, which at this time consists of 
small fry in the shape of mice, rats, birds, lizards, frogs, etc. 
AN ADVENTURE. 
One day, when meandering wearily along with a gun under 
my arm amongst the rugged, rocky, shrub-covered mountains in 
Natal, I kicked my toe against something soft and tumbled over 
on to it, when, to my horror, that big soft mass began to wriggle 
and uncoil, and for a moment or two I saw nothing but a succes- 
sion of huge coils. Then those coils resolved themselves into the 
form of a great Python about twenty feet long. He made off 
