502 



Reptiles. 



frogs, worms, mice, and various kinds of insects, and 

 passes the greater part of the winter in a state of 

 torpidity. In the spring they re-appear, and at this 

 season uniformly cast their skins. This is a process 

 that they also seem to undergo in autumn. Mr. White 

 says: "About the middle of September we found in a 

 field, near a hedge, the slough of a large snake, which 

 seemed to have been newly cast. It appeared as if 

 turned wrong side outward, and as if it had been drawn 

 off backward, like a stocking or a woman's glove. Not 

 only the whole skin, but even the scales from the eyes 

 were peeled off, and appeared in 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, in order that the friction of the stalks and blades 

 might promote this curious shifting of his exuvia." 



THE BOA CONSTRICTOR 



THIS immense animal is often twenty feet in length, and 

 sometimes even thirty-five ; the ground colour of its skin 

 is yellowish grey, on which is distributed, along the 

 back, a series of large chain-like, reddish brown, and 

 sometimes perfectly red, variegations, with other smaller 

 and more irregular marks and spots. It is a native of 



