MR. GOSSE ON- THE JAMAICA BOA. 



35 



posed they laid eggs, like other 

 snakes, though this one certainly 

 brought forth her young alive. F. 

 R. Griffith, Cumberland Pen, Ja- 

 maica, 8th May, 1851." 



We have here no evidence what- 

 ever that these snakes were there 

 and then " brought forth alive." 

 The language used would not 

 necessarily imply that this snake 

 produced young from a womb, like 

 mammals (which no snake does), 

 but merely that she did not lay 

 eggs. If they were hatched inside, 

 what had become of the shells of 

 the eggs? These could not have 

 been missed, and as Mr. Griffith 

 says nothing about them we must 

 conclude that the young were not 

 then born at all, but let out of the 

 mouth, having been hatched by in- 

 cubation and swallowed before cap- 

 ture, and let out at night or during 

 the day when all was quiet, and 

 quickly swallowed on the approach 

 of any one, without being noticed, 

 till nature could hold out no longer, 

 when they were let out for good, 

 leading perhaps, directly or indi- 

 rectly, to the death of both mother 

 and young. This boa must have 

 had her young long before the i9th 

 of October, perhaps before the 

 1 9th of July, like snakes in 

 America, those as far South as 

 Louisiana being hatched not later 

 than the ist of August. How did 

 it happen that these snakes, pro- 

 duced by a small one six feet one 

 inch, were 16 inches long, when 

 others often taken alive out of other 

 snakes (we will assume of the same 

 length) were only from 8 to 10 

 inches about half the size of Mr. 

 Griffith's ? And how did it happen 

 that eggs 1 1 inch by \ inch, like 

 those examined by Mr. Gosse, 

 yielded snakes 16 inches by i 

 inch, as found by Mr. Griffith? 

 That is, how could these be eleven 

 times the length and fully the width 

 of the eggs from which they had 

 just emerged? The mother was 

 73 inches long, and the 23 young 



ones, each 16 inches, would give 

 368 inches of snake, which would 

 doubtless make the mother thicker 

 than ten and a half inches round 

 the body, in her most bloated 

 condition, as to which Mr. Griffith 

 says nothing. If his snake had 

 been killed when captured, the 

 young would doubtless have been 

 Sfound inside of her, of about half 

 their size when seen by him, like 

 those taken out of other snakes 

 running at large. And this would 

 have made the following remark of 

 Mr. Gosse unnecessary : " Is it 

 possible that a serpent nominally 

 oviparous might retain the eggs * 

 within the oviduct until the birth 

 of the young when circumstances 

 were not propitious for their deposi- 

 tion ?" That at least is not proba- 

 ble. It would certainly be interest- 

 ing to confine snakes pregnant with 

 eggs, with no means of depositing 

 them, to be hatched by the soil or 

 by incubation, and carefully watch 

 results ; but it would be necessary 

 to know that they were really preg- 

 nant with eggs, which would be a 

 difficult, if not impossible, matter to 

 do ; so that the only principle to 

 guide the person making the ex- 

 periment would be to find the shells 

 of the eggs along with the young 

 as they made their appearance, to 

 feel sure that the mother con- 

 tained eggs to begin with. Mr. 

 Gosse is right when he says : " If 

 there was no error in the observa- 

 tion of this case, it must be con- 

 sidered as an aberration of habit;" 

 but very wrong when he adds, in 

 the appendix, that, " Mr. Hill ob- 

 tained from his informant the fol- 

 lowing clear and interesting details 

 of the matter which render the 

 fact [of the yellow boa being 

 viviparous] indubitable, however 

 strange," for, as I have said before, 

 he presented no evidence whatever 

 that the snakes were born there at 

 all. 



If people in Jamaica will make 

 experiments they will doubtless 



