But we have left our captive with still about a foot and a half of garment to get rid of and this is not much less difficult to accomplish than the head-gear. He has arrived at the last pair of ribs, and now, without such agency to free the tail cuticle, he more than ever needs some opposing obstacle. He has only his blanket, however, to pass under; and at last, by dragging himself along, the process is completed, the extreme few inches sliding off unreversed. On several subsequent occasions the Hamadryad has left the entire tail, often _nearly_ all of it, unreversed, as do many other snakes. Sometimes by a succession of jerks they manage to get rid of this portion; sometimes a comrade happens to pass over the slough—a great assistance, as affording resistance. I observed this particularly in a small constrictor, one of the three that entrapped two or three sparrows in as many coils at the same moment. In this case the whole process occupied less than ten minutes. After rubbing its head against the gravel, and turning it completely over to free itself from the upper shields, its ribs took chief part as usual, and I noted particularly that each pair moved in concert, and not alternately. This little snake went round close under the slanting edge of his bath-pan, which afforded him some assistance, and by the time he reappeared in front the whole slough was discarded, excepting a few inches of tail. These few inches caused some trouble, until his friend the python happened to pass over it, when with one final jerk the slough was free and entire from lip to tip. It was the quickest and most complete sloughing I have ever watched. When all was over, the large, beautiful black eyes of this four-striped or ‘four-rayed’ snake were particularly brilliant, as the little constrictor looked about and watched observantly, rejoicing in his newly-found faculty, after the blindness of the preceding days. Often the snakes are shy, and change at night; the tamer ones, however, undress when it suits them, affording frequent opportunities for observation. The slough when first discarded is moist and flabby; but it soon dries, and then in substance is as much like what is called ‘gold-beater’s skin’ as anything else, though a stronger texture is observable in the head-shields and the ventral scales. The size of the scales does not appear to bear any very regular correspondence with the size of their owner; for you will notice that some snakes only three feet in length, have larger scales than others three yards in length. Some of the immense pythons have smaller scales than a rattlesnake; and again, snakes of similar dimensions have scales different both in size and form. As great a variety is seen in the form and arrangement of scales as of shields.