150 REPTILES AND BATRACHIANS 



one of the most intelligent of snakes, learning to recognize 

 its master and feeding from his hand. This handsome 

 creature, which is black in colour, marked with round 

 yellow spots or with longitudinal or transverse yellow or 

 white bands, sometimes forming annuli round the body, 

 is extremely active and hardy, and, if kept at a sufficiently 

 high temperature, may be considered the most satis- 

 factory of all snakes from the point of view of captivity. 

 The King Snake feeds on mammals, birds, lizards, and 

 other snakes, the latter, in fact, being preferred to any 

 other food. Mr. Jennison informs me that those in the 

 Belle-Vue Gardens at Manchester are fed regularly on 

 eels, a fact of considerable interest, as no other reptile- 

 eating snake will make a meal off fish, and the question 

 arises as to whether or not the King Snakes, in accepting 

 such prey, are not imposed upon by the elongate form of 

 the fish, and do not regard them as members of the order 

 to which they themselves belong. King Snakes become 

 very excited at feeding time, and when several individuals 

 are kept together in a small cage, two specimens will 

 frequently seize upon their prey at opposite ends, often 

 with the same tragic results as previously related concerning 

 the Boa Constrictors. On one occasion such an occurrence 

 took place at our Zoological Gardens, and a fatal termina- 

 tion was only averted in the nick of time. The keeper 

 whose duty it was to keep a watch on the cage in which 

 five large King Snakes, all over four feet long, were feed- 

 ing, having been called away, found, on his return a few 

 minutes later, that one of the five snakes was missing ; on 

 closer investigation, however, about three inches of the 

 tail of the missing specimen was found to be protruding 



