8526 



Reptiles. 



In describing the sheep I shonld not say, for instance, that its habit is to throw itself 

 headlong down a precipice, after the manner of the ibex, though I have seen one do so 

 when pursued, and strangely enough it was none the worse for it. — Henri/ Hadjield ; 

 Ventnor, Isle of Wight, April 7, 1863. 



Bite of a Poisonous Snake cured by Ammonia. — As I was riding on the morning 

 of the 14th of January from Kopeigaur to Yeola (two villages in the Ahmedungger 

 Districts, Bombay Presidency), I saw a man carrying a load on his back, and on seeing 

 a woman who was passing at the time seize hold of it I perceived that it was a boy 

 about eighteen years of age, and on asking him what was the matter he replied that 

 the boy had been bitten by a snake early in the morning (this was about half-past 

 nine), and that he believed the boy to be dead. I got off my horse and fell the boy's 

 pulse, but could not feel it beat. The man at my direction put the boy down ; then 

 the body was quite motionless and the limbs deathly cold. I applied a bottle of car- 

 bonate of ammonia (that I have always carried about in my pocket since my dog was 

 bitten by. a cobra about two months before, and died in seven minutes after being 

 bitten) to his nose ; in about two or three moments I saw his head shake. We then 

 forced open his teeth, which were clenched tight together, and I put a piece of this 

 ammonia into his mouth. He very soon began spitting it out, when I put in a second, 

 third and fourth piece. In a quarter of an hour he was so far recovered that with the 

 assistance of two men he walked some three hundred yards. This occurred near 

 Yeola, where I met a native official. On my asking him whether he had any spirits 

 of ammonia, which is supplied by Government to these native officials in cases of 

 snake bites, he sent to his office to see, when a man brought me a bottle. I then 

 administered a dose or two of it in water to the boy, and after an hour he was so con- 

 valescent that he opened his eyes and looked about; though he remained speechless, 

 still he appeared to notice what was«said to him. I may mention that at first, on 

 forcing up the eyelids, the whites of his eyes were perfectly yellow. The natives could 

 not tell me what sort of snake it was that had bitten him, and though no doubt a 

 venomous one it could not have been a cobra, otherwise all remedies so long after the 

 boy had been bitten would have been inefficacious. — Julian Hobson ; Ahmedungger 

 Districts, Bombay, February 12, 1863. 



On the Breeding of Salamandra maculosa in Captivity. — Seeing a paragraph in 

 the March number of the ' Zoologist ' (Zool. 8449), relative to the above reptile I 

 send a few notes concerning the breeding of this wonderful creature. Not knowing 

 any external difference between the male and female Salamandra I cannot answer the 

 question of sex referred to by your correspondent. I have had two of these curious 

 reptiles, but both were females which 1 purchased two years ago. For four months 

 or more they both refused food, and I was afraid they would soon die, but not so, for 

 after this time had elapsed, they began to feed upon the common garden worm, taking 

 two or three large sized ones at a meal, and they have fed on them ever since, and 

 are remarkably fat and well. The man from whom I purchased these told me they 

 would have young very soon, for which I eagerly looked forward for two or three 

 months, after which I gave up all hopes, but at the end of eleven months one of them 

 gave birth to five or six little ones, thus showing that the reptile is viviparous and not 

 oviparous as many people fancy. As she was neglected, of course these died. She 



