Page:White - The natural history of Selborne, and the naturalist's calendar, 1879.djvu/447

Rh have been newly cast. From circumstances it appeared as if turned wrong side outward, and as drawn off backward, like a stocking or woman's glove. Not only the whole skin, but scales from the very eyes are peeled off, and appear in the head of the 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 exuvi.

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 scales 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 cook maid. While the scales of the eyes are growing loose, and a new skin is forming, the creature in appearance must be blind, and feel itself in an awkward uneasy situation.—. I have seen many sloughs or skins of snakes entire, after they have cast them off; and once in particular I remember to have found one of these sloughs so intricately interwoven amongst some brakes that it was with difficulty removed without being broken; this undoubtedly was done by the creature to assist in getting rid of its encumbrance.

I have great reason to suppose that the eft or common lizard also casts its skin or slough, but not entire like the snake; for on the 30th March, 1777, I saw one with something ragged hanging to it, which appeared to be part of its old skin.—.