50 OUR REPTILES. 



we indulged in boyhood, on putting our hand, with 

 felonious intent, into a bird's nest (we couldn't see 

 into it), and finding our fingers come in contact 

 with the smooth cold folds of a coiled-up snake ! It 

 was the last time we felt for eggs before seeing them. 

 That was an experiment too satisfactory in its re- 

 sults to require repetition. The author already 

 quoted gives an interesting account of a snake's 

 meal : — " If it be a frog, it generally seizes it by the 

 hinder leg, because it is usually taken in pursuit. 

 As soon as this takes place, the frog ceases to make 

 auy struggle or attempt to escape. The whole body 

 and legs are stretched out, as it were, convulsively, 

 and the snake gradually draws in, first the leg he has 

 seized, and afterwards the rest of the animal, portion 

 after portion, by means of the peculiar mechanism 

 of the jaws, so admirably adapted for this purpose. 

 When a frog is in the process of being swallowed in 

 this manner, as soon as the snake's jaws have reached 

 the body, the other hind leg becomes turned for- 

 wards ; and as the body gradually disappears, the 

 three legs and the head are seen standing forwards 

 out of the snake's mouth, in a very singular manner. 

 Should the snake, however, have taken the frog by 

 the middle of the body, it invariably turns it, until 

 the head is directed towards the throat of the snake, 

 and it is then swallowed, head foremost." The frog 

 is not only alive during the above process, but often 



