_ THE BOoA-CONSTRICTORS. 305 
known, if man were not naturally exempted. The fear 
of being seized by these reptiles, which deters so many 
timid people from bathing in the creeks and rivers, is no 
doubt natural enough, even if such seizure may only 
happen by mistake; but the chances of danger are so 
infinitesimal that they are hardly worth regarding. 
Unlike the other boas, but like water snakes and vipers 
generally, the anaconda is ovo-viviparous. The eggs are 
retained in the body until the young are fully developed 
and are able to look after themselves. It seems to be 
generally thought that the young are hatched out in the 
body of the parent, and crawl forth themselves, but to 
judge from what has been observed in other ovo-viyi- 
parous snakes, this is not really the case. The egg 
membranes are complete and unbroken at birth, and the 
young break through after extrusion. This was certainly 
the case in three separate instances observed by the 
writer,—two in the rattlesnake, and one in the closely 
allied labarria—in each of which more than twenty young 
ones were thus brought forth. No doubt, at the time when 
the young are sufficiently developed and are ready for 
birth, their wriggling movements induce their extrusion, 
but the eggs are stri€tly not hatched till afterwards ; and 
the young can Le seen closely coiled inside the trans- 
parent membranes, until they disrupt them and crawl 
about, 
It may possibly be the case at times that the adults are 
placed under conditions not suitable for the bringing 
forth of the young, and that the latter are then re- 
tained until they do aétually crawl out; but in the 
light of the three instances above quoted, this can hardly 
be regarded as striétly natural. That unfavourable con- 
