Reptiles. 3757 



a huge crest in the shape of a saw. It was surrounded by hundreds of birds, and we 

 at first thought it was a dead whale. He left a track in the water like the wake of a 

 boat, and from what we could see of his head and part of his bodjr we were led to think 

 he must be about 60 feet in length, but he might be more. The captain kept the ves- 

 sel away to get nearer to him, and when we were within a hundred yards he slowly 

 sank into the depths of the sea. While we were at dinner he was seen again, and a 

 midshipman took a sketch of him, of which I will send you a copy." — The Times. 



Note on the " Yellow Boa? (Chilabothrus inornatus). — About three months ago a 

 female yellow snake was presented to us, which was brought from the Forest Estate, 

 Trelawny, in the island of Jamaica. For some time after its arrival it appeared slug- 

 gish and unhealthy, but this we attributed to the low temperature it experienced dur- 

 ing the passage, and fancied that after casting its skin it would feed and do well, but 

 on the 6th of November last the keeper discovered fourteen young ones in the den, 

 of which seven were dead and seven alive ; of the latter five are still alive and doing 

 well, and the old one has since cast her skin, and now seems in good health. Mr. 

 Gosse, in his charming book on Jamaica, describes and figures this snake, which he 

 calls the "Yellow Boa" {Chilabothrus inornatus), and on the whole seems to think 

 that it is oviparous ; and he appears to have arrived at this opinion from the circum- 

 stance of some eggs having been brought to him, when he was in Jamaica, from a 

 place there called Belmont, and which were stated to be those of the yellow snake, 

 and also from the fact of " Sam," his boy, having found a boa lying on a nest of trash 

 made between the spurs of a fig-tree, where however no eggs were found. Mr. Gosse 

 afterwards mentions that on killing the female yellow snake, young ones have often 

 been found in her belly ; that some labourers in the Pedro mountains killed one hav- 

 ing twelve "grown" young ones in her, varying from 8 to 10 inches in length (the 

 young ones in our menagerie were about the same length on the first day) ; and he 

 concludes his notice by saying that his friend, Mr. Hill, thinks the yellow snake is vi- 

 viparous, a young friend of his having caught a gravid female of this species, which 

 after some days brought forth eleven young ones; and on this he remarks, that if there 

 was no error in the observation of this case, it must be considered as an " aberration 

 of habit," that the generation of the Boada? is well known to be oviparous, and that 

 the fact he has before mentioned as having fallen under his own observation, proves 

 that " sometimes at least the Chilabothrus produces eggs ; '' and he then asks this 

 question, — " Is it possible that a serpent, normally oviparous, might retain its eggs 

 within the oviduct until the birth of the young, when circumstances were not propi- 

 tious for their deposition?" In answer to this, one is tempted to ask whether it is 

 quite certain that the eggs brought from Belmont were really those of the yellow snake, 

 aud whether the instances of the snake caught by Mr. Hill's friend, and the one in our 

 menagerie, are not stronger proofs of its being viviparous, and especially as we do not 

 hear of other instances where eggs have been found? Would it be considered a fair 

 argument to ask why an oviparous snake should have the power of retaining her eggs 

 any more than a hen ? — the latter, it is certain, could not do so beyond a certain time, 

 whether she had a nest prepared or not, and why should the reptile ? The snake in 

 our collection was brought over in a large box, and after her arrival was kept in a 

 good roomy den, and it seems difficult to account for her not having, under the cir- 

 cumstances, dropped her eggs if she be indeed oviparous. It appears from the books 

 that, so far as it is known, all poisonous snakes are viviparous. The yellow snake in 

 our menagerie certainly has poison-fangs, Mr.Etheridge, of our Institution, and other 



