8040 



Reptiles. 



something more than protection, is rendered likely from the fact that 

 when other snakes at the gardens deposit any eggs (which sometimes 

 occurs) they take not the slightest notice of them, but leave them to 

 shift for themselves. In such cases the eggs have been taken away, 

 and occasionally hatched by artificial means. But the strongest argu- 

 ment in favour of incubation is the unusual development of heat in 

 the python, and its continued application to the eggs, the heat being 

 most apparent on the lower surface of the body. How can this be 

 accounted for except on the "incubation" hypothesis? It must be 

 remembered that this is not the first instance of such a development 

 of heat being observed where a snake was under similar conditions. 

 In the case at Paris, the highest temperature noted in the python was 

 during the first day or two, and it gradually diminished until the time 

 when the first egg was hatched. Eight eggs out of the fifteen de- 

 posited proved to be good, and after fifty-six days the young snakes 

 made their appearance. The remaining eggs contained partly-deve- 

 loped embryos. M. Valenciennes states that the incubation of snakes 

 is well known in India, and is alluded to in popular tales. He also 

 refers to the 6 Arabian Nights,' where, in the account of his " Second 

 Voyage," Sindbad speaks of looking into a cavern, and seeing at the 

 bottom a large serpent asleep on her eggs. The gradual diminution 

 of temperature in the Paris python has not been paralleled in the 

 London snake. In the latter, for reasons before given, no very 

 accurate experiments were made during the first month, but after- 

 wards, except just before the moult, there was only a slight variation 

 in the quantity of heat. There is reason to believe that several of the 

 eggs had been in process of development. One that had become dis- 

 placed during the first month was found to contain a living embryo ; 

 and an apparently fully-formed young python has been taken out of 

 another egg since their removal from the reptile- house. This little 

 snake is about nine inches long; it has all the characteristic markings 

 of the parents, and was almost ready for hatching. The old python 

 cast her skin after she had been fifty-three days on her eggs ; now 

 the first young snake was hatched at Paris after fifty-six days, so we 

 may reasonably conclude that the long absence from her eggs of our 

 London python was the immediate cause, almost at the last moment, 

 of their going wrong. Only a few of the eggs have yet been 

 examined. 



We all have a great deal to learn about snakes and their habits, 

 but we shall make little progress if we refuse to admit strong evidence 

 simply because it bears against our long-cherished ideas. The notion 



