AND AMERICAN RURAL SPORTS. 
271 
by letting vipers bite a piece of rag, and then suddenly 
snatching it from their mouth, he easily extracted the 
fangs, and that he then frequently put them between his 
shirt and skin, and brought them away alive. 
Snakes are easily tamed, an instance of which is men- 
tioned in Mr. White’s Naturalists’ Calendar; and there is 
a stuffed specimen of a snake now in the Zoological Mu- 
seum, which, when alive, was perfectly tame, and had 
been eleven years in the possession of the gentleman who 
presented it to that society, and to whom it showed a 
strong attachment. Eton boys have always been great 
tamers of snakes, and many anecdotes are related by them 
of their attachment to their owners. 
Snakes, unlike the viper, are oviparous, and their eggs 
are linked together in a sort of chain, and are each about 
as big as a large marble. They feed on frogs, mice, cer- 
tain insects, and also young birds. It is supposed by 
some people that they destroy the eggs of partridges and 
pheasants; and for this reason many gamekeepers make a 
point of killing them. Snakes have sometimes been found 
on the branches of trees, where they have contrived to get 
in search of young birds. A person lately informed me 
that he had found one in that situation. A snake has been 
seen to swallow a newly-hatched chicken; and I once ob- 
served one in the act of attempting to swallow a full- 
grown frog. I was attracted to the spot by the cries of 
the latter, which were very loud and piteous. The 
snake made great efforts to get the frog down his throat, 
which he at last succeeded in doing. By trampling on a 
snake which has just swallowed a frog, the latter is easily 
ejected from the stomach of the former. 
The fact of snakes annually casting their skin or slough 
is very curious. I have found the slough of one twisted 
amongst some young quicksets in a hedge-row, and ap- 
pearing perfectly fresh. Shakspeare seems to have been 
aware of this. 
“ There the snake throws her enamelPcl skin.” 
» • 
Mids. Night’s Dream. 
The circumstance of the slough being twisted in the way 
I found it amongst some twigs, seems to prove that the 
snake had not been able to rid himself of it without having 
recourse to something not very pliable which would assist 
him in the operation, although Mr. White says that he had 
found the slough in a field near a hedge. His account is 
very agreeable. He says, “ About the middle of this 
month, (September,) we found in a field, near a hedge, 
the slough of a large snake, which seemed to have been 
newly cast. From circumstances it appeared to have been 
drawn off backward, like a stocking, or woman’s glove. 
Not only the whole skin, but the scales from the very 
eyes, were peeled off, and appeared in the head of Dm 
slough like a pair of spectacles. The reptile, at the time 
of changing his coat, 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 changing his garment. As the convexity of the 
eyes in the slough is now inward, that circumstance alone 
is a proof that the skin has been turned; not to mention 
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 last, just as eels are skinned by a 
cookmaid. While the scales of the eyes are growing 
loose, and a new skin is forming, the creature in appear- 
ance must be blind, and feel itself in a very awkward and 
uneasy situation .” — Gleanings Nat. Hist. 
,;,A . ^ -P/iT..' 
THE BEE. 
“ Where the Bee 
Strays diligent, and with th’ extracted balm 
Of fragrant woodbine loads his little thigh.” — Thomson. 
I have some experiment hives which enable me very 
accurately to inspect the operations of my Bees. From 
the construction of the hives, the combs are necessarily 
built between two panes of glass, so that on drawing the 
sliders the two surfaces of a comb are exposed to view. 
In this way I am able to see almost every thing that is 
going forward. 
When the Queen-Bee has an inclination to deposit her 
eggs, she goes forth, accompanied by six or eight work- 
ing Bees as a guard, and whose stomachs are filled with 
honey. She is very deliberate in her motions, and seems 
to proceed with great caution. She first looks into a cell, 
and if she finds it perfectly empty, she draws up her long- 
body, inserts her tail into the cell, and deposits an egg. 
In this way she slowly proceeds till she has dropped ten 
or twelve eggs, when perhaps feeling exhausted, she is 
fed by one of the attendant Bees, who have surrounded 
