THE TONGUE OF A SNAKE. in 



It is much to be regretted that a number of anecdotes 

 which describe this 'lubrication' have been retained and 

 quoted over and over again in books on snakes. Writers 

 who are conscientiously instructing us, and who are even 

 telling us ' snakes do 7iot lick their prey/ quote the anecdotes 

 which tell us that they do, and thus appear to favour the 

 assumed mistake. 



Space will not permit of the numerous examples which 

 might be here introduced in proof of this. Nor is it necessary 

 to name more than two or three of these misleading anec- 

 dotes ; the reader will at once recognise them, for they 

 appear everywhere. 



First comes the M'Leod narrative, which has found favour 

 with popular writers for no less than sixty-three years ! The 

 first edition of the Voyage of the Alceste, by Dr. M'Leod, the 

 surgeon on board, was published in London in 1817, a second 

 edition in 1818, and a third (so popular was the work) in 

 1 8 19. His account of feeding the boa constrictor was not 

 the least popular part of the little book ; for in those days 

 there were few who knew what to believe where a snake was 

 concerned. The account of a goat being swallowed fills 

 several pages, written in a style to exaggerate horrors, and 

 apparently deny to the reptile any right to obey nature's 

 laws. 'The python fixed a deadly and malignant eye on 

 the goat : ' . . . ' first operation was to dart out its forked 

 tongue:' . . . 'continued to grasp with its fangs:' . . . 'began 

 to prepare for swallowing : ' and ' commenced by lubricating 

 with its saliva : ' . . . 'commission of this murder,' etc. 



Maunder, in his Treasury of Natural History, quotes this, 

 having previously stated (under the head Boa Constrictor) : 



