438 THE ZOOLOGIST. 
sluggish, and the skin very dry and rough—signs denoting that it was 
nearly ready to shed—I placed the bath in the case at seven o'clock in the 
evening. The snake at once entered the water, and did not again leaye it 
until between seven and eleven o'clock in the evening of Nov. 26th, when 
it shed its skin in the water and left the bath. The skin this time was shed 
in two pieces. On Jan. 6th the Python again commenced to steep pre- 
paratory to casting another skin, and this time remained continuously in 
the water until Jan. 13th, when it shed its skin (in several pieces) in the 
water. I was not fortunate enough to see the operation of casting in either 
of these cases, but on Aug. 10th the snake again entered its bath with a 
view to softening its skin for casting. This time I kept him under close 
observation during the whole time. After he had been in the water a day 
or two the scales over his eyes became white and opaque, and the reptile 
was evidently blind. In about five days after this occurred they cleared 
again, and he was able to see, and two days later—on Aug. 19th, at 
11.30 p.m.—he left the water. At 11.40 p.m. he commenced rubbing the 
sides of his jaws on the felt at the bottom of the case, gradually loosening 
the skin round the edges of the lips. When he had got as far as the 
nostrils he gave two sudden and forcible expirations of breath—not an 
ordinary hiss, but more like a sneeze—apparently to clear the skin from the 
inside of the nostrils, and then continued rubbing off the moist loose skin. 
At 11.48 p.m. he had the skin completely free from the head, both above 
and below. At 11.52 p.m., as the snake appeared not to have sufficient 
room in which to move about, I opened the case and removed the bath. On 
being thus disturbed he ceased rubbing off the skin, which was now turned 
back for about six inches behind the head, and lay quiet until 12.10 a.m., 
when he again commenced. By 12.27 a.m. he had fully two feet of skin 
removed, and at 1 a.m. three feet. At 1.80 a.m. the tip of his tail came 
away free from the old skin, which was shed all in one piece, but with one 
or two small rents in it. During the last half-hour I assisted the process 
by allowing the Python to crawl through my partially closed hands, as he 
appeared to feel the need of something against which to rub himself. 
As a pet, the Indian Python has many qualifications to recommend 
him. He is clean in his habits, has no objectionable smell, is easy to feed 
and keep in good health, and (if my specimen may be taken as a fair 
example) is easily tamed. Mine is an exceedingly gentle animal, appearing 
to thoroughly enjoy being handled and petted; and, although his intelli- 
gence is not of a very high order, he can readily distinguish between 
myself and a stranger, from whom he shrinks with evident suspicion, whilst 
coming to me without hesitation—W. J. CrarKxe (44, Huntriss Row, 
Scarborough), 
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