208 TlMEHRl. 
etc., carved out of the seeds of various colonial plants, 
the carvings having been executed in London for 
the British Guiana Court of the Colonial and Indian Exhi- 
bition. The large and fine china bowl, considered a very 
old and valuable one, was brought from the island of 
St Eustatius, and was obtained by purchase. 
In the long, flat case by the table, some specimen of 
living snake is generally exhibited — usually a land- 
camoodie ; and, for comparison, a stuffed land-camoodie 
and water-camoodie are shewn on the table, together with 
the rather roughly-mounted skeleton of a yellow-tail — a 
yellow T -tail of unhappy memory, since it swallowed a 
very handsome and much-prized little land-camoodie that 
was being reared. The various bones of the skeleton 
have not been separated, but have been left attached by 
their ligaments. After viewing the skeleton of a snake 
and seeing the immense number of ribs (of which there 
are sometimes more than three hundred pairs), one is 
prepared to understand the nature of the movements of 
the snake, and its speed, since each rib fun6lions as a 
walking limb, the effeft being increased by the ex- 
treme mobility of the back-bone owing to the ball 
and socket arrangement of the joints. An inspection 
of the articulation of the under jaw also gives the explana- 
tion of the immense distention of which the mouth of a 
snake is capable, and of the power which snakes possess 
of swallowing very large objefts. An extra bone called 
the quadrate, not present in mammals, is found placed 
between the upper and lower jaw, and the freedom of 
movement of the lower jaw is increased by the wide 
gape of the mouth. The snake does not swallow, 
as swallowing is ordinarily understood. It literally puts 
