Page:Natural History, Reptiles.djvu/198

190 It is a curious fact but recently discovered, that some, at least, of the Pythons incubate their eggs like birds. This fact was lately witnessed in the case of a female of the Python bivittatus of Kuhl, in the menagerie of the Museum at Paris. Incubation was prolonged without interruption during nearly two months. The number of eggs laid was fifteen, all separate. After being deposited the snake collected them together, and coiled round them the posterior part of its body; a second coil was then formed upon the first, and a third upon the second, and so on, until the whole of its body was rolled into a spiral form, the several coils together forming a cone, at the top of which was its head, the eggs being all concealed within. Its temperature was sensibly augmented above that of the surrounding atmosphere while incubation was going on; it ate nothing during the whole period; but drank greedily several times. At length, at the end of fifty-six days, without the female having once quitted the eggs, one of the little Pythons was hatched; and in the course of a few days there were seven others; but no sooner were they evolved than the mother left them to themselves, shewing no further affection for the offspring which she had so sedulously incubated.