112 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



equally permeable by air while it excludes dust more effectually, 

 does not corrode or become clogged, is far less expensive, and 

 can be easily renewed at any time — tbougb, as far as I can see, 

 it is practically as durable as tbe wire. Moreover, the snakes do 

 their mouths no harm in pressing against it, as they would be 

 apt to do with the other material. I have had some in constant 

 use for five or six years, and find it in as good condition, with 

 regard to utility, as it was when first nailed on ; nor has it 

 stretched or slackened to any appreciable extent. It can be 

 washed, and even scrubbed ; but all that will be necessary, as a 

 rule, is an occasional dusting with a clothes-brush, within and 

 without. It ought to be supported, in a cage of very large 

 dimensions, at intervals of half a yard or two feet, like the glass, 

 — nailed, that is to say, not merely drawn over an intervening 

 beam, — otherwise it may lose its tension. And take particular 

 care that it is fastened as near to the edge of the woodwork as 

 possible, so that no interval is left for the inmates to wriggle 

 their heads or bodies into; where a piece of canvas passes across 

 any part of the framework, upright or horizontal, it should be 

 nailed firmly to both margins of the support, the two squares 

 thus becoming practically separate pieces, independent of each 

 other. The extreme obnoxiousness of any interval of non- 

 adherence between the woodwork and canvas is very soon 

 apparent when any such exists at the lower border ; no matter 

 how tightly the stuff may be stretched, the gravel will become 

 wedged there by the persevering efforts of the serpents, and will 

 be next to impossible to dislodge without injury to the canvas. 

 Fix it close to the edge, then, and do not spare the tacks — three 

 to the inch will not be an extravagant allowance. 



If these items of advice seem tediously minute, I would invite 

 the reader to notice tbat none of them are unimportant. His 

 object in building a cage is to keep live snakes therein, and it 

 would be vexatious to find that object frustrated by their escape 

 or injury through the want of a tin-tack in the right place when 

 all is finished. I wish to spare him the annoyance of finding 

 these things out for himself by experiences which can only be 

 untoward. A serpent-cage is not a recognised article of 

 commerce. One cannot order it to be made, like a dog-kennel, 

 without any further directions about details than its size ; nor 

 send to an ironmonger's or a fancy-shop and get a new one if it 



