278 



INTRODUCTION TO ZOOLOGY. 



at Arclrossan, Ayrshire), who narrated to us the following 

 interesting occurrence: While stationed in Ceylon, his ser- 

 vant one morning ran into his room, and informed him that a 

 favourite Hen was lying dead in her nest, and that the twelve 

 eggs on which she had heen sitting were taken away. Sup- 

 posing it must have been by a Snake, immediate search was 

 made throughout the hen-house and other adjoining premises, 

 when a Cobra-di-Capello was found under a piece of wood, 

 and was immediately killed; being opened, the eggs were 

 found in its belly. Nine out of the twelve eggs were broken; 

 the remaining three were immediately put under another Hen 

 that was sitting, and in due time a chick was produced, and 

 the race of the feathered favourite thus preserved from 

 extinction. 



Some of the great Snakes 

 found in India incubate, or 

 sit on their eggs. This 

 fact was observed in the 

 case of a female (Python 

 liviUatus) in the menagerie 

 of the Museum at Paris. 

 Her body was coiled round 

 the eggs (fifteen in number) 

 forming a cone, at the top 

 of which was her head. The 

 temperature of the body was 

 sensibly augmented while 

 incubation was going on, 

 which lasted for nearly two 

 months. During the whole 

 of this period she ate no- 

 thing, but drank greedily 







the young were hatched she left them to themselves, evincing 

 no further affection for the offspring over which she had so 

 sedulously brooded.* 



The remains of Serpents of this tribe, and of that of the 

 Boa-Constrictor, have been found in the London clay, thus 

 proving the former existence in these kingdoms of reptiles 

 which are now only known in tropical countries. No Snakes 



* Armales des Sciences Naturelles, tome xvi., p. 65. Quoted in Note to 

 Jenyns's Edition of White's Selborne, p. 69. 



