66 SIVAKES. 



This 'black snake' climbs trees with ease, and hangs 

 from a branch to reach a nest below him. * He is the 

 nimblest creature living/ says an old writer on Virginia, 

 for he not only has the credit of stealing hens' eggs, but 

 he 'even swallows the eggs of small birds, without 

 breaking them,' which again is a proof of the remarkable 

 control these creatures possess of regulating the pressure of 

 their powerful jaws. 



Many of the African snakes climb trees, and also suspend 

 themselves from a branch while reaching into a bird's nest 

 lower down for the eggs it may contain. Both Livingstone 

 and Dr. Andrew Smith ^ make particular mention of some 

 of the egg-eating snakes of South Africa, the latter in his 

 general description of ophidians stating that ' many, perhaps 

 all snakes, devour eggs when they have an opportunity. A 

 few feed entirely on eggs,' notably some of the small tree 

 snakes, to which the name Oligodon (few teeth) has been 

 given, this family having no teeth on the palate, like all 

 other snakes. Their food, therefore, cannot be of a nature 

 to require a very strong grasp, though we have no authority 

 for stating that the Oligodons feed exclusively on eggs. 



There is, however, one of the family with a dentition so 

 remarkable that it has been considered a distinct type, and 

 Dr. Andrew Smith, who was the first to observe its habits, 

 gave it the generic name of Anodon (toothless), the jaws 

 being merely roughened with the rudiments of teeth. This 

 little snake, of about two feet in length, is exclusively an 

 Ggg - feeder. ' Its business,' says Professor Owen in his 

 Odontography, 'is to restrain the undue increase of small 



1 Zoology of Sottth Africa^ by Dr. A, Smith. 1849. 



