TREATMENT OF SNAKES IN CAPTIVITY. 289 



which is scarcely appreciable ; it possesses no such intrinsic 

 heating apparatus as we have. Blankets, therefore, only keep in 

 whatever heat exists before they are put on ; wrap up a warm 

 snake and it will retain its warmth accordingly, but a cold one 

 will become no hotter, though it may be thus defended from an 

 approaching decrease of atmospheric temperature. Where arti- 

 ficial heat emanates from the flooring of a cage, to cover the 

 snakes as they lie upon it will naturally insure their getting the 

 full benefit of the warmth by restraining its diffusion. It is 

 generally better to introduce a box, partially filled with moss 

 (never wool or flannel), and having the lid so fixed as only to 

 leave a small opening at night; and it is amusing to see how 

 quickly they get to know this box, and come swarming over one's 

 hands as soon as the door is opened, in their eagerness to get in 

 — not that they necessarily intend to remain there, by any means ! 

 They should be turned out in the morning. 



A little contretemps sometimes occurs in covering up a snake 

 with a blanket, which must be laughable enough to a disinterested 

 spectator, though vexatious to one who finds that his care and 

 trouble have been expended in vain. You spread the cloth over 

 the reptile as it lies quiescent ; but while you are leaning across 

 it, making everything neat and smooth and comfortable, the 

 object of your attention, aroused thereby, is slipping out of the 

 cage underneath your elbow unperceived, and you close the door, 

 satisfied that all is snug for the night, to stumble on the creature 

 as it glides away to a distant corner of the room — just as the clown, 

 who has been concealed at the bottom of a cupboard, dives 

 between the legs of the policeman who is searching the upper 

 shelf ! I was once bringing home a very savage Anaconda, about 

 nine feet long, in a deal box which had been converted into a 

 temporary cage by nailing some wire netting over the top ; at one 

 end a piece of this netting could be lifted, trapwise, to form a door. 

 I was endeavouring to cover him up one evening, as he lay at the 

 farther end of the box; protecting my hands with the rug, I 

 passed it smoothly in to the full extent of my arms, which 

 brought my chest almost into contact with the opening, and pro- 

 ceeded to push and fold it over him as well as I could at that 

 distance. Suddenly there came a furious hiss, almost in my ear, 

 and I found the enraged reptile's head on my shoulder, close to my 

 face ! As I laboriously covered the after part of him, the other 



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