72 SNAKES. 



other faculties of which we are at present ignorant. In the 

 case of an unbroken egg, for instance, the tongue has told 

 the snake that there is something good inside it ; and instinct 

 immediately leads the reptile to get the awkward mouthful 

 between its jaws, which expand just so far as to retain it 

 safely, yet just so lightly that not one of those row^s of long, 

 sharp teeth shall penetrate the shell or fracture it in the 

 slightest degree. How delicate must be the adjustment 

 whereby those six jaws, all bristling w^ith fine, needle-like 

 teeth, grasp and yet not break the delicate shell ! for, after 

 all, an Qgg is a fragile substance in proportion to the size of 

 the feeder and its muscular powder. 



Snakes have been known to get choked in attempting to 

 swallow an cgg^ as they have also come to grief with other 

 impediments, such as horns of cattle ; but this w^e must 

 attribute to their not being able to estimate their own 

 swallowing capacities, or to some other untow-ard event. 



The Messrs. Woodward's scientific snake would not have 

 crept into these pages had it not previously figured in the 

 Zoologist.dind thence copied in other prints, thereby misleading 

 many readers. It also proved a subject worth discussing by 

 thinking persons, and was alluded to very particularly by 

 an ophiological friend and publisher in a letter to myself, 

 which may be here usefully quoted. My friend, who has 

 long stimulated me by his kind encouragement of my 

 work, and by the assistance of his experience and judg- 

 ment, was pleased to express much interest in a little paper 

 on the Deirodon, which I had written for Aiuit Judys 



^ See Aunt Judy's Magaziney Aug. 1S74, London, — 'The Deirodon, or neck- 

 toothed snake.' 



