REPTILES IN CAPTIVITY 191 
scurvy of the mouth. All that it is necessary to do under 
these circumstances is to place them in a warm cage with a 
large water bath, in which they will lie for weeks with only the 
tips of their noses above the surface. The water has a cura- 
tive effect upon the mouth, the purulent parts becoming 
loosened so that the reptiles can shake them off, and in this 
way snakes have been cured in which large pieces of the jaws 
had already been eaten away. 
A good deal is yet to be learnt with regard to the breed- 
ing of snakes ; but I am looking forward to making some ex- 
periments in this line during the next few years at my animal 
park at Stellingen. Young snakes come into the world in 
two different ways. The boa-constrictors and other Indian 
snakes lay eggs and hatch them out. The water-snakes, on the 
other hand, do not lay eggs but bear living young. About 
fifteen years ago I had an opportunity of observing the course 
of events in one of these latter cases. The mothef was an 
Eunectes murinus, which is one of the largest species of 
Brazilian snakes, and is said to attain to as much as twenty 
feet in length. The one that I possessed was fifteen feet 
long, and after I had had her a few months she was delivered 
of a family of forty-eight children. I was unable to take the 
news to the lucky father, for he had been left behind in the 
forests of Brazil. But the story had a tragic termination, 
for they all died on being born. I have also had some ex- 
perience of the oviparous kinds, especially in the case of a 
certain dark python which had laid an enormous number of 
eggs. She used to lie coiled around these, and whenever I 
approached the nest three or four young ones would shoot 
out their heads angrily at me from among the eggs. Out of 
a total of about fifty eggs the snake succeeded in hatching 
twenty-one while the rest became dried up. The young 
snakes were fond of returning to their egg-shells after they 
had been born. They used them as nests, and if they came 
out at all, only did so to crawl round for a few minutes and 
then return. The feeding was a matter of some difficulty. 
