ON INSECTS AND VERMES. 383 



be rid of them is, to kill as many as possible before 

 they begin to breed. 



Large, gray, shell-less cellar snails lay themselves 

 up about the same time with those that live abroad : 

 hence, it is plain, that a defect of warmth is not the 

 only cause that influences their retreat. WHITE. 



SNAKES' SLOUGH. 



There the snake throws her enamelPd skin. 



SHAKSPEARE, Mids. Night's Dream. 



About the middle of this month (September), we 

 found, in a field near a hedge, the slough of a 

 large snake, which seemed to have been newly cast. 

 From circumstances, it appeared as if turned wrong 

 side outward, and as drawn off backward, like a 

 stocking, or woman's glove. Not only the whole 

 skin, but scales from the very eyes, are peeled off, 

 and appear in the head of the slough like a pair of 

 spectacles. The reptile, at the time of changing his 

 coat, had entangled himself intricately in the grass 

 and weeds, so that the friction of the stalks and 

 blades might promote this curious shifting of his 



-" Lubrica serpens 



Exuit in spinis vestem." LUCRET. 

 Smooth serpents that in thickets leave their skin. 



It would be a most entertaining sight, could a 

 person be an eye-witness to such a feat, and see 

 the snake in the act of changing his garment. As 

 the convexity of the scales of the eyes in the slough 

 is now inward, that circumstance alone is a proof 

 that the skin has been turned : not to mention that 

 now the present inside is much darker than the 

 outer. If you look through the scales of the snake's 

 eyes from the concave side, viz. as the reptile used 

 them, they lessen objects much. Thus it appears, 



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