GILPIN ON THE SERPENTS OF NOVA SCOTIA. 85 



sonian Inst.) in its dark sinning black above, bluish black below, 

 and white about the chin and breast. Of its habits or haunts, I 

 have no notes or observations, as in our Province. 



Mr. Blackwood, a merchant of Halifax, gave me in August, 

 1871, three snake eggs out of a chain he had found beneath the 

 root of a tree at Truro. They were double the size of the garter or 

 green snake's eggs. I lined a glass wide-mouthed phial with damp 

 cotton wool, and placed them in it, putting the phial in the sun. 

 On the third day one of them was broken, and a young snake half 

 way through the aperture. By the end of the day he had freed 

 himself from the egg that was sticking to him by a yellowish sub- 

 stance, and was a lively brilliant young serpent. The next day a 

 second came out, whilst the third egg proved dead. They loved 

 the sunlight, tried hard to escape, but survived only a fortnight, 

 daily failing in liveliness before my eyes ; as after trying them 

 with milk, sugar and water, flies and egg, I had no means of feed- 

 ing them — the whole group of an egg still containing its embryo ; 

 an egg empty, and the little snakes themselves, in alcohol now, 

 form the proof of a physiological fact that no one may doubt. From 

 their great size, about two inches and a half in length, and their 

 bluish-black colour, I considered them the young of B. constrictor ; 

 but having no specimen by me, I will not assert it as a fact. They 

 were the young of no other species inhabiting this Province. 



The Green Snake. 

 Chlorosoma vernalis. B. & G. 



Next to the garter snake this beautiful species is the most 

 numerous in the Province. It is most usually seen about half 

 grown, in the grass, of a lively green, but attains to the size of 

 between two and three feet. It is not unfrequently met crossing 

 the wood roads. It produces eggs very like the garter snake, and 

 receives its young in its mouth when in danger. I have identified 

 its eggs. 



The King Snake. 



Diadolphis punctatus. B. & G. 

 This species is still more rare. I captured one on the boi'ders 



