112 



THE VICTORIA^? NATURALIST. 



Does the Snake Swallow its Young? — " Surveyor," writing 

 from Benalla, says : — " Twice in my experience I have seen the 

 swallowing take place. On the bank of Lake Kariah, near 

 Camperdown, I came upon a large brown snake lying on a bare 

 patch. Several young ones, which appeared to be sunning them- 

 selves near by, took alarm on my approach, and with one accord 

 turned towards the parent, which made a peculiar hissing noise, 

 and widened her jaws. Into the opening glided in quick succes- 

 sion the young ones. Within twenty seconds or thirty seconds 

 from my first seeing them they were all in, and the full-grown 

 snake making for a place of safety. I killed the snake with a 

 blow of my axe, and by examination convinced myself that I 

 had not been the victim of an optical illusion. At Gooramadda, 

 on the Murray Flats, I saw an adult brown snake swallow four 

 young. On opening the body I found two of the young ones 

 with their heads pointed towards the snake's tail, and two in the 

 reverse position, showing that they had turned after entering. 

 They were in what seemed to be a membraneous sac lying 

 parallel with the spine, and absolutely free from moisture ; the 

 sac pliable, and apparently highly elastic. I have on many 

 occasions killed snakes which contained young, both alive and in 

 the embryo or egg. In such cases it was evident that birth had 

 not taken place, as the young were small, and the covering 

 membrane or shell was in every case found with them." — 

 Australasian, igth /September. 



Bees and Eucalypti. — M. Ricasoli informs the readers of the 

 Giornale di Acdimazione, an Italian publication, that the flowers 

 of the Eucalypti of the Mediterranean coast, and more especially 

 those of the species rostrata, diversicolor, and cornuta, are visited 

 by bees in such numbers as to make obtaining of herbarium 

 specimens from these trees during the day impossible. Hence 

 he concludes they must provide excellent food for the bees. 



Apropos of the arrival of the first Rhinoceros in Australia — that 

 which Mr. Le Souef has secured for the Melbourne Zoological 

 Gardens — we may quote the following item from the London 

 Gazette for 1684 : — " A very strange beast, called by the learned 

 Rhynoscerosus, has lately been brought from the East Indies, 

 and is the first that has ever been seen in England. It can daily 

 be viewed at the Bell Savage Inn, Ludgate Hill, from nine in the 

 morning to eight o'clock at night. It has a tail like a pig, a horn 

 like an elephant on its nose, and its body is encased with armour, 

 proof against shot-guns. It has been visited by the court, the 

 nobility, clergy and gentry, and scholars of repute, some of whom 

 regard it as the Leviathan of Job, but cannot explain its being 

 found in the East Indies. It is thought that His Majesty will 

 shortly add it to his royal lions in the Tower." 



