INSECTS AND VERMES. 283 



had entangled himself intricately in the 

 grass and weeds, so that the friction of the 

 stalks and blades might promote this curious 

 shifting of his exuviae. 



■ " Lubrica serpens 

 " Exuit in spinis vestem." Lucret. 



It would be a most entertaining sight 

 could a person be an eye-witness to such a 

 feat, and see the snake in the act of chang- 

 ing his garment. As the convexity of the 

 scales of the eyes in the slough is now in- 

 ward, that circumstance alone is a proof 

 that the skin has been turned : not to men- 

 tion that now the present inside is much 

 darker than the outer. If you look through 

 the scales of the snake's eyes from the 

 concave side, viz. as the reptile used them, 

 they lessen objects much. Thus it appears 

 from what has been said, that snakes crawl 

 out of the mouth of their own sloughs, and 

 quit the tail part las t, j us t as eels are skinned 

 by a cook maid. While the scales of the 

 eyes are growing loose, and a new skin is 

 forming, the creature, in appearance, must 



