,262 



INTUODUCTIOM TO ZOOLOGY. 



moriiing ran into his room 

 Hen was 



drossan, Aj-rshire), who narrated to us the following interest- 

 ing occurrence : — While stationed in Ceylon, his servant one 



and informed him that a favourite 

 ying dead in her nest, and that the twelve eggs 

 on which she had been sittuig were taken away. Supposing 

 it must have been by a Snake, immediate search was made 

 throughout the hen-house and other adjoining premises, 

 when a Cobra-di-Capcllo was found under a piece of w^ood, 

 and was immediately killed ; being opened, the eggs were 

 found in its belly. Nine out of the twelve e2^gs were broken ; 

 the remaining three were immediately put under another Hen 

 that was sitting, and in due time a chick was produced, and 

 the race of the feathered favourite thus preserved from 

 extinction. 



Some of the great Snakes 

 found in India incubate, or 

 sit on their eggs. This 

 fact was observed in the 

 case of a female (^Python 

 hwitlalus) in the menagerie 

 of the Museum at Paris. 

 Her body was coUed round 

 the eggs (fifteen in number), 

 forming a cone, at the top 

 of which was her head. The 

 temperature of the body was 

 sensibly ausrmented while 

 incubation was going on, 

 nearly two 

 the whole 

 of this period she ate no- 

 thing, but di-ank greedily 

 several times. As soon as 

 the young were hatched she left them to themselves, evincing 

 no further affection for the offspring over which she had so 

 sedulously brooded.* 



The remains of Serpents of this tribe, and of that of the 

 Boa-Constrictor, have been found in the London clay, thus 

 proving the former existence in these kingdoms of reptiles 

 which are now only known in tropical countries. No snakes 



* Annales des Sciences Naturelles, tome xvi. p. 65. Quoted in Note to 

 JenjTis's Edition of White's Selbome, p. 69. 



a 



was 



which lasted for 

 months. Durinof 



Fig 226. — Egyptian Naja. 



