OBSERVATIONS ON INSECTS AND VERMES. 297 



fectly secured, and corked up as it were, from all inclemencies. The 

 cause why the slugs are able to endure the cold so much better than 

 shell-snails is, that their bodies are covered with slime as whales are 

 with blubber. 



Snails copulate about Midsummer ; and soon after deposit their eggs 

 in the mould by running their heads and bodies under ground. Hence 

 the way to be rid of them is to kill as many as possible before they 

 begin to breed. 



Large, grey, shell-less, cellar-snails lay themselves up about the same 

 time with those that live abroad ; hence it is plain that a defect of 

 warmth is not the only cause that influences their retreat. WHITE. 



SNAKE'S SLOUGH. 



There the snake throws her enamell'd skin. 



SHAKESPEARE'S MIDS. NIGHT'S DREAM. 



About the middle of this month (September) we 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 drawn off backward, like a stocking or woman's glove. 

 Not only the whole skin, but scales from the very eyes, are peeled off, 

 and appear 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. 



'Lubrica serpens 



Exuit in spinis vestem. " LUCRET. 



It would be a most entertaining sight could a person be an eye- 

 witness to such a feat, and see the snake in the act of changing his 

 garment. As the convexity of the scales of the eyes in the slough is 

 now inward, that circumstance alone is a proof that the skin has been 

 turned : not to mention that now the present inside is much darker 

 than the outer. If you look through the scales of the snake's eyes 

 from the concave side, viz. as the reptile used them, they lessen objects 

 much. Thus it appears from what has been said, that snakes crawl 

 out of the mouth of their own sloughs, and quit the tail part last, just 

 as eels are skinned by a cook maid. While the scales of the eyes are 

 growing loose, and a new skin is forming, the creature, in appearance, 

 must be blind, and feel itself in an awkward uneasy situation. 



WHITE. 



I have seen many sloughs or skins of snakes entire, after they have 

 cast them off; and once in particular I remember to have found one of 

 these sloughs so intricately interwoven amongst some brakes, that it 

 was with difficulty removed without being broken : this undoubtedly 

 was done by the creature to assist in getting rid of its incumbrance. 



I have great reason to suppose that the eft or common lizard also 

 casts its skin or slough, but not entire like the snake ; for on the 30th 

 of March, 1777, I saw one with something ragged hanging to it, which 

 appeared to be part of its old skin. MARKWICK. 



