7944 



Reptiles. 



not a whit attenuated by her long fast, while beneath the lowest coil 

 were bunches of eggs, some plainly visible between the folds of the 

 coil, others, as the keeper said, being only partially seen in conse- 

 quence of their being overlaid by the serpent's body. Some of the 

 eggs were of a dirty green-white, decomposition having probably 

 taken place, — a supposition strengthened by the odour emanating 

 from them and also from the serpent. The removal of the blanket, 

 though effected most quietly, immediately excited the pythoness. Her 

 head, which was lying on the topmost coil, in the best position for 

 observation, was suddenly raised; she became restless, darted out her 

 long quivering tongue with great rapidity, and would have struck the 

 keeper had he not recovered her with the blanket and put an end to 

 her irritation. 



It will be interesting to watch the result. Immediately opposite 

 the pythoness's cage is a lively member of the viper family, which was 

 hatched in the Gardens in 1860 from an egg; and we understand that 

 a boa was born in Paris from an egg hatched by the female. Thus 

 the Zoological Society may reasonably look forward to an increase of 

 its interesting collection of reptiles ; and though the Fellows are not 

 probably particularly desirous to have an accession of one hundred 

 pythons to their stock, yet a few lively baby pythons would un- 

 doubtedly be an important addition to the attraction of their unri- 

 valled Gardens during the ensuing season, when our metropolis will be 

 crowded by sight-seeing visitors. We trust, however, that, apart from 

 this financial consideration, the Society will take care that the pytho- 

 ness shall be carefully and closely observed while she is incubating. 



[I entertain considerable doubts as to the term " incubating," which I find em- 

 ployed by all our zoologists on this interesting occasion : without consulting a 

 dictionary or lexicon as to the meaning of the word, it is quite certain that we natu- 

 ralists have applied it to a phenomenon which cannot be exhibited by a pytho- 

 ness ; that phenomenon is the application of heat to the egg by means of the super- 

 imposed body of one or other of the parents. Viewing incubation in this light, we 

 must apply some oiher term to the exhibition in Regent's Park. The design of the 

 parent may be to cool the eggs by contact with her body ; it may be to protect them 

 from any unnatural taste for juvenile pythons on the part of father python, — a 

 taste of which we have had many instances within the range of our zoological 

 researches : indeed it is of little use to speculate : we know that the imposition of a 

 body colder than the surrounding atmosphere can have no tendency to vivify the eggs, 

 and that we generally believe to be the object of incubation.— Edward Newman.'} 



