CHAPTER III. 



OPHIDIAN TASTE FOR BIRDS' EGGS. 



CAN we correctly say that snakes have a * taste ' for 

 eggs ? What flavour can there be in an egg-shell, 

 and what pleasure or gratification can a snake derive from 

 swallowing a hard, round, tasteless, apparently odourless, 

 and inconvenient mass like a large ^gg ? 



That snakes do devour eggs and swallow them whole, 

 though the fact is often questioned in zoological journals, is 

 well known in countries where snakes abound. Therefore, 

 we are led to consider by what extraordinaiy insight or 

 perception a snake discovers that this uncompromising 

 solid contains suitable food } Avoiding, as snakes do as 

 a rule, all dead or even motionless food, it is the more 

 surprising that eggs should prove an exception. And not 

 merely the small and soft-shelled eggs of little birds, that 

 can be got easily into the mouth and swallowed, but the 

 eggs of poultry and the larger birds, which must in the first 

 place be difficult to grasp, and in the second place to 

 which the jaws so wonderfully adjust themselves that the 

 Qgg passes down entire into the stomach. 



