306 Notices in Natural History. 



his manifesting an unusual uneasiness, and frequently thrusting his 

 head against and between the wire grates of his prison, as if en- 

 deavoring to effect an escape. After striving and chafing against 

 the wires a few minutes, the skin at the point of the head began to 

 cleave off and turn back over the head on to the neck, in an inverted 

 form. After the animal, by pressing the part against the wires, had 

 succeeded in thrusting back the skin three or four inches upon the 

 neck, he left the wires, and throwing his body into a coil around it- 

 self, so as to embrace with the last fold the inverted skin, with a strong 

 muscular pressure, made at the same time a powerful effort, shot his 

 body forward through the coils, which unfolded, one after another, 

 and thus drew off the entire skin. This is, in all probability, the 

 modus operandi of the whole race, and of whom it may be truly 

 said, " they are all turncoats." 



To the enquiring mind, the question might naturally suggest it- 

 self — for what reason, and by what necessity, is it, that the serpent, 

 different from other creatures in the animal kingdom, throws off his 

 skin annually ? To this it might be replied, the condition to which 

 this animal is doomed, "Upon thy belly shalt thou go," he. renders 

 it necessary to his comfortable existence, that he be furnished with a 

 covering suitable to that condition. Hence nature has provided for 

 him a complete coat of mail, wonderfully contrived in all its parts. 

 Plates, greaves, scales, joints, and ligatures, are all employed in the 

 construction of this protecting armor. 



The nicely polished scales, which cover the under side of the 

 body, enable the reptile to glide along upon the ground, among 

 grass, weeds, and other obstructions, with astonishing facility. This 

 coat, however, is necessarily composed of a material, the nature of 

 which renders it incapable of distension or expansion. At the re- 

 turn of the warm season of the year, the snake awakens from his 

 torpidity, issues from his winter lodging, and having a full supply of 

 food, which that season affords, soon begins to thrive, and his dimen- 

 sions increase. He now finds himself too straitly laced, and takes 

 measures to rid himself of so uncomfortable a garment. 



I have inclosed a specimen of the cast skin of the garter snake, 

 by which you will perceive the inverted convexity of the crystals 

 of the eyes and form of the head ; a fragment also of the skin of a 

 small adder. You will notice a difference in the belly scales, as to 

 their proportions. 



