NATURALISTS CABINET. 



Manners Casting the skin Eggs. 



bushes in moist places,, whence they seldom re- 

 move., unless in the midst of the day, in summer, 

 when they are called out by the heat to bask 

 themselves in the sun. If attacked they at first 

 endeavor to escape, but if much pressed they 

 begin to hiss, and put themselves into a threat- 

 ening position, though incapable of doing mis- 

 chief. 



These snakes in winter .conceal themselves, 

 and become nearly torpid, re-appearing in spring, 

 when they uniformly cast their skins. This is a 

 process that they also seem to undergo in the 

 autumn. About the middle of September Mr, 

 White found in a field, near a hedge, the slough 

 of a large snake, which seemed to have been 

 newly cast. From circumstances it appeared as 

 if turned wrong side outward, and as if it had 

 been drawn off backward like a stocking or wo- 

 man's glove. Not only the whole skin, but the 

 scales, from the very eyes, were peeled off, and 

 appeared in the head of the slough like a pair of 

 spectacles. The reptile, at the time of changing 

 his coat, had entangled himself intricately in the 

 grass and weeds, so that the friction of the stalks 

 and blades might promote this curious shifting of 

 his exuviae. 



The female deposits her eggs in holes fronting 

 the south, near stagnant waters ; but more fre- 

 quently in dunghills, in the form of a continued 

 chain of ova, to the number of from twelve to 

 twenty. These are about the size of the eggs of 



