28 SNAKES. 



aloft in the jaws of a snake that with elevated head glides 

 up the bank. Coluber's head is no bigger than a filbert, and 

 the frog is nearly full grown, its body inflated to twice its 

 original size, and its legs, of impracticable length and angles, 

 kicking remonstrantly. 



' How in the world is the snake going to manage it ? ' 

 again you exclaim, and your amazement is not exceptional. 

 It is what has been witnessed and heard weekly in London 

 when the public were admitted to the Reptilium on feeding 

 days, and it is what the reader will recall in his own case 

 Vv^ien first informed that a snake was going to swallow that 

 monstrous mouthful undivided. 



In the present instance, the injury to froggie's feelings 

 thus far partakes more of moral than of physical pain, for 

 the grasp of the snake is not violent, and he finds that the 

 more he struggles the more he injures himself. Yet he 

 kicks and struggles on, at thus being forcibly detained 

 against his will. In the mouth of the snake he is as propor- 

 tionately large as the shoulder of mutton in the jaws of the 

 dog that has just stolen it from the butcher's shop. How 

 do the canines manage unwieldy food t The dog can 

 tackle the joint of meat, big though it be, because he has 

 limbs to aid him, and he was prepared for emergencies 

 before he stole it. He knew of a certain deserted yard up 

 a passage close by, and of some lumber stacked there ; 

 he watched his opportunity, and is off to his hiding-place ; 

 and once hidden behind the lumber, he settles down quietly 

 with his ill-gotten dinner firmly held between his fore-paws, 

 while, with eyes and ears on the alert, he gnaws away. 



The snake, no doubt, knows of a hole in the bank, or in a 



