The Life and Reproduction Cycle of the Medusae

Medusas who die of old age regenerate by turning into stone. They are "reborn"  with an infantile body when they crack through their own petrified statue's hollow head like an eggshell. 

Incubation lasts a year and one day, the same to reach full maturity. Infant medusas are called "nagas" because they resemble a tiny human head on a serpentine body. Their face and skull is covered in scales. 

They grow rapidly into "newts," sprouting arms from a human torso at two weeks. Buds form all over the newt's scalp and quickly grow into writhing snake tails. These tails grow eyes and develop the snake heads during as they mature into adolescence. 

An adolescent medusa is called a "snipe." It's important to note that medusas don't develop their petrifying gaze until adulthood, though a snipe's gaze can stun. The last thing it develops before its petrifying vision is the menacing rattle at the end of its tail. Until the medusa becomes an adult, it must feed its ravenous hunger by constantly hunting for fresh meat—which explains a medusa's penchant for archery. Unlike adults, adolescents must sleep.

To "hunt snipe" means to search for an adolescent medusa's den. A dangerous quarry, snipe are cunning and alert. They often set traps and defenses around their lair. With a lethal aim, they attack with envenomed arrows from the shadows. This is origin of the word "sniper"—one who shoots victims from a great distance.