i64 NATURE'S CALENDAR 



July 22 work, among the crowding ascidians and 



hydroids. Oysters and clams are spawning 

 vigorously, and the starfish leaving their 

 beds for deep water ; while the squids are 

 spreading now, on gravelly or shelly bot- 

 toms, " eggs contained in large bunches or 

 groups of long gelatinous capsules." 



In July are produced the young of 

 several snakes and lizards, those of the 

 pine-tree lizard regularly appearing in 

 southern New Jersey during the second 

 week of the month. Eggs of the hog- 

 nose, the pine-snake, and the milk-snake 

 may also be found now ; and it appears 

 probable that the black-snake lays its eggs 

 this month, burying them in rotting veg- 

 etation, barn -yard manure, and similar 

 warm places. Of this, however, nobody 

 is yet certain, for "when the sexes [of 

 Bascanio7i constrictor] unite, when the 

 eggs are laid, how concealed, and when 

 they hatch are," says Mr. O. P. Hay, of 

 the National Museum, "some of the 

 things we need to learn." It is stated 

 of this serpent's near relative, the red- 

 headed, or mountain black-snake (^///(^^r 

 obsolettcs), that near Washington it lays 

 its eggs in April (once, at least, in a 

 hollow stump), and that they hatch the 

 same month. Towards the end of the 

 month young garter snakes may some- 

 times be found in northerly places, and 

 now and then an infant water-snake, but 

 as a rule the birth of these is delayed 



until September. 



July 23 



