CHAPTER VIII 



REPTILES AND THEIR PROGENY 



Young mammals and young birds differ conspicuously 

 from young reptiles in that for a more or less extensive 

 period they require no inconsiderable amount of care and 

 attention from their parents ; but this bond, as we have 

 seen, is severed by the parents, sometimes in a very un- 

 ceremonious fashion, so soon as this attention is no longer 

 necessary. Young reptiles, on the contrary, are from the 

 first independent, and as a consequence there has been 

 no stimulus to develop the parental instinct. Between 

 parent and offspring there are no ties of affection, save in 

 one or two exceptional cases. 



Young sea-snakes, for example, seem to enjoy the 

 guardianship of one or other of their parents for some time 

 after birth, since the naturalist Semper once found a 

 large female coiled up among the rocks, and between her 

 folds were at least twenty young, two feet in length. The 

 young of the common viper of our heaths seem to accom- 

 pany their mother for a short time at least : and there are 

 some who would have us believe that, so anxious is she for 

 their welfare, that when danger threatens, she opens her 

 mouth so that her precious offspring may take refuge 

 within her body till the cause for alarm be past. After 

 the existence of the sea-serpent perhaps no incident in 



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