.AUSTRALIAN SNAKES. 27 



Enemies of Snakes. 



Tlie Mungoose, of India, is a born enemy of snakes, 

 and altliongh experiments liave proved that this animal 

 is by no means " snake proof," it seklom gets the worst 

 of the encounter ; quick as is a snake, it is no match 

 for a mungoose, wliich avoids every stroke of its 

 iidversary by extreme agility, and generally succeeds in 

 killing its victim. In Africa also, another notorious 

 snake-pestered country, there is a natural enemy in the 

 person of the Secretary Vulture. This bird, well out of 

 harms way, on its stilt-like legs, and armed with stout 

 beak and powerful stroke-dealing wings, seldom fails to 

 despatch even the largest snake. Feral pigs, or in 

 other words, domestic pigs, which have escaped super- 

 vision and become wild, are credited with destroying 

 snakes, and as such pigs are plentiful in some parts of 

 the Australian continent, they may be of service in this 

 respect. In the valley of the Oregon, snakes have been 

 ■exterminated by the domestic pig, and in pnrts of India 

 these animals have frequently been observed searching 

 for and eating cobras. 



In Australia, the indigenous enemy of snakes is 

 the Laughing Jackass {Dacelo giganteus). This fam- 

 iliar bird, wisely protected by our legislature, as is the 

 Secretary Vulture by the Cape Government, is an expert 

 snake killer, and possesses a powerful weapon in its 

 formidable beak ; with this it quickly breaks the back 

 of its victim, and so renders it incapable of active move- 



