48 OUE REPTILES, 



bably 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 surrounded 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, notwith- 

 standing such provision for multitudes, the snake, generally 

 speaking, is not a very common animal.* 



Having deposited her eggs, the female appears 

 to have no further care or thought of her progeny. 

 She neither watches over them to preserve them 

 from injury, nor, when hatched, does she take 

 them under tuition in the tortuous policy of a 

 snake's existence. The incubation of snakes was 

 a knotty point widely discussed when the Python 

 of the Zoological Gardens laid eggs, which were 

 never hatched. 



This snake, in common with others, changes 

 its skin at intervals, but not, as has been stated, 

 at regular periods, or once a year ; but some- 

 times four or five times during the year, and 

 often less, according to circumstances. In this 

 ' sloughing * process the reptile bursts the 

 cuticle about its neck, draws out its head, the 

 old skin is thrust back, and the snake crawls 

 out. In this process the skin is turned inside 

 out, and left on the grass to scare unwary 

 females into the belief that they have seen a 



* Knapp's u Journal of a Naturalist," p. 306. 



