SNAKES AND EGGS

Evening Post, Volume CV, Issue 124, 26 May 1923, Page 14

SNAKES AND EGGS

MINOECA FEOM THE &0W OP A COBRA, G.J.," in the "Manchester Guardian," throws some expert light on the great hen's-egg-or-lizard's question which was recently discussed in the House of Commons :—rßirds, which in the process of evolution are derived from a lizard-like form, have retained the egg habit which is common to.all the crocodiles, snakes, and lizards. But the eggs of these reptiles are enclosed for the most part in a stout, leathery skin, and the. few that havej shells could not be mistaken for hen eggs,- as they are without albumen, or more simply because they are always found deep in sand or covered with rotting vegetation. Compared with the huge bulk of reptiles, their eggs are very small. Those of the largest snake do not exceed's§ ounces. The ovalshaped eggs that caused such a flutter in the Nottingham hencote came from a Chinese monitor lizard about 6ft long. Incubation—three months, not three weeks, is the usual period—is the flaw in the tale, but perhaps the Chinese eggs were stacked near the boilers. Anyway, it is' a good story, and snakekeepers, who do not fear even fishermen j in their nights of fancy, welcome a I new competitor. Snakes and lizards fire very fond of birds' eggs, and are great connoisseurs. An egg-eating snake can tell the freshness of an egg by a mere touch of the tonguq,; he could go through a case, more quickly than a professional packer, and at much less cost. Here is a true story about an egg-eating snake. It happened in Natal. A brood hen fled cackling from her nest; a cobra had squeezed through the bars of the coop, and, having swallowed five eggs, was unable to escape. They %vere prize eggs, and the owner was annoyed. The intruder was caught and \killed, the body was slit, and the eggs recovered whole. To wash them was the work of a moment, the sitter was coaxed back to her duty, and the clutch were hatched in triumph.» And for many years a Black Minorca chief of the brood lived and crowed defiance at the serpent and all his works...