NATURAL HISTORY OF SELBORNE. 



quickly, he will find that an idea of the croaking of frogs is 

 obtained. 



SNAKES' EGGS, p. 57. The engraving below shows the eggs 

 of the common snake just ready to hatch out. I found them in a 

 dunghill in Aldennaston Park, Reading, when on a visit to my 

 hospitable and kind friend, Higford Burr. I have thus described 

 them in my "Log-Book of a Fisherman and Zoologist:" "Lifting 

 up the straw most carefully, I was delighted to find first one, then 

 two, then a dozen eggs. The squire and I then proceeded leisurely 

 to dissect out the nest with our pocket-knives and a dung-fork. 



KI;I;> UK THK COMMON SNAKE. 



Snakes' eggs are not quite so large as a blackbird's ; they are 

 round at both ends like a sugar-plum. They have no hard 

 shell like a hen's egg, but the shell is composed of a soft 

 elastic substance, like thin wash-leather. Some of the eggs were 

 lying quite separate. The greater part were, however, stuck 

 firmly together, so tightly that it was almost impossible to tear 

 them apart without breaking the skin. The eggs were not held 

 by a ligature, but appeared pasted together by some strong ad- 

 hesive gum, end to end ; most of the eggs were quite distended ; 

 the shells of some had fallen in, and they looked crumpled. 



