INSECTS AND VERMES. 355 



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 men- 

 tion 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 situa- 

 tion. 1 



OBSERVATIONS ON VEGETABLES. 



TREES, ORDER OF LOSING THEIR LEAVES. 



NE of the first trees that becomes naked is 

 the walnut : the mulberry, the ash, especially 

 if it bears many keys, and the horse-chest- 

 nut, come next. All lopped trees, while 

 their heads are young, carry their leaves a 

 long while. Apple-trees and peaches remain green till 

 very late, often till the end of November ; young beeches 

 never cast their leaves till spring, till the new leaves sprout 



1 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. 



