62 SNAKES. 



finds hens' eggs unbroken on opening a case containing the 

 newly-arrived cobras. How many eggs were originally in 

 the box, and how many had been eaten and digested, or 

 reproduced during the voyage, it would be interesting to 

 ascertain if possible. 



Snakes are fastidious feeders and long fasters during 

 confinement. Those cobras may have fasted during the 

 whole journey, or they may have swallowed and disgorged 

 the eggs through terror, like their friends at home. Two 

 things are clear, viz. that the eggs were deposited in the 

 cage as a favourite delicacy, and that a hen's egg is not 

 a too cumbrous morsel for even the small-headed cobra to 

 manage. 



A gentleman, accustomed to snakes, on hearing of this, 

 regarded the eggs found intact in the box as a proof against 

 their egg-eating propensities, and pointed to the Ophlophagus 

 which, for lack of his ordinary food one winter, had in vain 

 been tempted with both pigeons' and hens' eggs. * He 

 won't eat them, he won't notice them,' was the keeper's 

 testimony; but, then, other snakes often decline food, even 

 their habitual and favourite food, when In confinement ; and 

 so far as the Indian snakes are concerned, their egg-eating 

 habits are confirmed by many writers, including Sir Joseph 

 Fayrer, w^ho afiirms that ' they will eat and swallow the 

 eggs whole.' * Snakes are all carnivorous, existing on 

 animals and birds' eggs,' he again remarks.^ * Cobras rob 

 hen-roosts, and swallow the eggs whole.' ^ 



And does not the very fact of the eggs being placed in 

 the cages by the natives for their food during a journey, 



1 Thanatcphidia of India, 1st ed. 1872. '^ Ih. 2d ed. p. 6. 1874. 



