306 EGGS OF THE SNAKE. 



strength, and the faculty of contraction and flatten- 

 ing its body, in order that it may remove the 

 weights, or squeeze through the impediments that 

 check the return to light and warmth, and the ac- 

 complishment of the purport of its being. These 

 are but lowly things to converse upon, creatures 

 fashioned beneath in the earth ; yet, hallowed by 

 their Creator's hand, they manifest his omniscience, 

 and we cannot but revere his wisdom and goodness. 

 My labourer this day (July the 18th), in turning 

 over some manure, laid open a mass of snake's eggs 

 (coluber natrix), fifteen only; and they must have 

 been recently deposited, the manure having very 

 lately been placed where they were found. (Plate 

 5, Fig. 4.) They were larger than the eggs of a 

 sparrow, obtuse at each end, of a very pale yellow 

 colour, feeling tough and soft, like little bags of 

 some gelatinous substance. The interior part con- 

 sisted of a glareous matter like that of the hen, 

 enveloping the young snake imperfect, yet the 

 eyes and form sufficiently defined. Snakes must 

 protrude their eggs singly, but probably all at 

 one time, as they preserve no regular disposition of 

 them, but place them in a promiscuous heap. At 

 the time of protrusion they appear to be surround- 

 ed with a clammy substance, which, drying in the 

 air, leaves the mass of eggs united wherever they 

 touch each other. I have heard of forty eggs being 

 found in these deposits ; yet, notwithstanding such 

 provision for multitudes, the snake, generally 

 speaking, is not a very common animal. The 



