THE TRANSITION TO LAND 



399 



Photos by Winchester 



Fig. 26.21. A chicken snake swallows a chicken. These photos show the extent to 

 which a snake's mouth and throat may be distended to swallow its food. The victim 

 is captured as the snake coils around it. The head is grasped in the snake's mouth 

 and the body of the chicken is slowly worked down the throat by backward and forward 

 movements of the lower jaw. The snake's small teeth point backward to aid in this 

 process. This is a three-lined Florida chicken snake which is a valuable destroyer 

 of rodents in spite of its occasional raids on the chicken yard. 



