A Visit to the Python in the Zoological Gardens. 129 



tlieni for a few moments, and then it was estimated there were 

 upwards of a hundred, but the precise number will probably 

 never be known. 



On this matter of incubation authorities differ. The author 

 of the Treatise on Reptiles in the Encyclopaedia Britannica 

 says, l( No reptile is known to hatch its eggs." In the Gar- 

 dener's Chronicle of February 22, Mr. Waterton says, "The 

 body of a snake is hard and cold, and scaly ; qualities quite 

 useless in hatching eggs, which require warmth and softness, 

 and pliability when birds sit on them ; and the heat of the sun 

 and dryness, when the atmosphere acts the part of a parent." 

 On the other hand, the English Cyclopaedia says, " They (the 

 pythons) are distinguished by placing their eggs in a group, 

 and covering them with their bodies. This statement, which 

 was made by Mr. Bennett, and afterwards confirmed by M. 

 Lamare-Picquot, has been doubted; but its truthfulness has 

 been confirmed by the proceedings of a python in the Garden of 

 Plants at Paris." (Vol. i. Boidee, c. 540.) 



On the 13th of February last, the pythoness had fasted for 

 twenty-five weeks, and then disdained food, and thrust from 

 her the rabbits which were allowed to skip about her cage 

 unsuspectingly as a temptation. She drinks freely ; and there 

 is a large tank close at hand, so that she can obtain water 

 without quitting her eggs. The temperature of her den ave- 

 rages 70°, and the temperature of the eggs may be estimated 

 at 80°. As numerous broods of serpents have been artificially 

 hatched at the Gardens, the temperature favourable to the 

 process is a matter of importance. The time usually occupied 

 is sixty days, in a temperature of 80°. It is anticipated that 

 the incubation of the python will be at an end, for better 

 or worse, on the 20th of this month, which will be seventy days 

 from the deposition of the eggs. Opposite the den of the 

 pythoness is a viper, which was hatched from an egg in the 

 Gardens in 1860, and at the rear of the den is a cage full of 

 little viperines (Tripodonothus viperinus), which I had the 

 pleasure of playing with, which were hatched artificially ; they 

 now average from ten inches to a foot in length, and are lively, 

 interesting creatures that change their garments frequently, and 

 eat a prodigious number of mice and frogs. 



The age of the pythoness is not known. She is supposed 

 to be about thirty years old, and if we may assume that her 

 magnitude has not. increased at the rate it would have done 

 had she been free instead of caged during the past eleven 

 years, the measurement in feet will afford a near approximation 

 to the number of years of the existence of such a creature. 

 She may bring out a few little pythons from her mound of 

 eggs, and a new attraction will thereby be offered to the sight- 



