SNAKES: 



CURIOSITIES AND WONDERS OF SERPENT LIFE, 



CHAPTER I. 



SEEING A SNAKE FEED. 



IN any person who for the first time witnesses a snake 

 with prey just captured, the predominant feeHng 

 must be one of surprise at the seemingly unmanageable size 

 of the animal it has seized ; and he probably exclaims to 

 himself, or to his companion, as we did on the occasion 

 described in the introduction, ' What will he do with it ? ' 

 Let us again take our common ring snake, Coluber 

 iiatrix, that ate a frog for our edification ; only, in the 

 present instance, instead of seeing a tame snake in a 

 private residence at Chelsea, w^e will suppose ourselves to 

 be watching one on the banks of a stream in fine summer 

 weather. A slight movement in the grass causes us to turn 

 our eyes towards the spot, and we are just in time to see the 

 quick dash, and the next instant a recalcitrant frog held 



11 



