34 



MR. GOSSE ON THE JAMAICA BOA. 



and about seven inches long, doubt- 

 less near its full length, for grown 

 ones, taken alive out of the belly of 

 a boa, varied from eight to ten 

 inches. 



Mr. Gosse says : " The interest- 

 ing circumstance of the Python 

 bivitatus incubating its eggs, which 

 took place in the menagerie of the 

 Museum of Paris, is thus shown to 

 be characteristic of the family, the 

 habit being common to the Ameri- 

 can and Indian species of the 

 JBoadcz j for the fact that the fcetus 

 in the case which I have recorded 

 above was fully formed and capa- 

 ble of motion when extracted, suf- 

 ficiently proves that some time had 

 elapsed since the deposition of the 

 eggs, while the exit of the boa from 

 the nest, which led to the discovery, 

 shows that the parent was still ful- 

 filling the duties of incubation." 

 " The generation of the Boadce is 

 well known to be oviparous." 

 Notwithstanding that, he says : 

 " Other persons have assured me 

 that often on killing a female yellow 

 snake (the boa) they find the young 

 in her belly. And this is curiously 

 confirmed by a note from Mr. Hill, 

 who thus writes me : 'The Honour- 

 able Thomas James Bernard, mem- 

 ber of the Council, has related to 

 me a very curious fact of the yel- 

 low snake. Lately his labourers in 

 the Pedro mountain district, St. 

 Ann's, killed a yellow snake con- 

 taining some ten or twelve grown 

 young ones varying from eight to 

 ten inches in length. The Negroes 

 expressed their surprise at this cir- 

 cumstance, because they knew that 

 this boa produced its young from 

 eggs.' " A phenomenon like this 

 was well calculated to call forth 

 from Negroes their usual " golly " 

 of surprise, but it should have ex- 

 cited in intelligent observers and 

 professional naturalists some other 

 idea than that snakes have a " local 

 option " in bringing forth their 

 young, by eggs hatched in the 

 ground, or by incubation, or by 



"bearing them alive." Mr. Hill 

 timidly ventures the remark : " Is 

 this to be received as a case of 

 snakes that retire upon alarm into 

 the mouth and stomach of the 

 parent? It is stated of the rattle- 

 snake in ' Hunter's Memoirs of a 

 Captivity Among the North Ameri- 

 can Indians,' that, when alarmed, 

 the young ones, which are general- 

 ly eight or ten in number, retreat 

 into the mouth of the parent, and 

 reappear on its giving a contractile 

 muscular token that the danger is 

 past.' Credible eye-witnesses say 

 the same of the European viper. 

 (See Charlesworth's Mag. Nat. 

 His., Vol. I., new series, 1837, p. 



441-)" 



Notwithstanding what has been 

 said of the boa being oviparous and 

 an incubator, Mr. Gosse, at pages 

 323 and 501, says that Mr. Hill 

 describes her as viviparous, on the 

 authority of " a young friend studi- 

 ous of natural history," who wrote 

 him thus: " It was on the 3rd of 

 July, 1849, that I caught the snake 



[a gravid boa] 1 put 



it into a box with a wire front. . . 

 I could never induce the snake 

 to eat, though I offered it every- 

 thing I could think of; and it was 

 more savage than most others, and 

 bit me several times, each bite 

 drawing blood, like a severe scratch 

 from a cat. It measured 6ft. lin. 

 (its tail short and blunt), and io|in. 

 round the body. It was very in- 

 active, lying all day in a corner of 

 its cage, or coiling in graceful folds 

 about the perches. On the morn- 

 ing of the i pth of October I was 

 surprised to find my captive had 

 produced twenty-three young ones ; 

 they were all perfectly formed, and 

 of much the same size. I measured 

 six of those that died first, and 

 found them 16 in- long, and i \ in. in 

 circumference. The last of the 

 young ones died on the 24th, and 

 the mother on the 28th of the same 

 month. ... I am anxious to 

 try them again, for I always sup- 



