CHAPTER VIII. 



THE GLOTTIS. 



ONE Friday in August 1873, while watching a large 

 python, at the Zoological Gardens, swallowing a 

 duck which it had just killed, I was struck by a singular 

 something projecting or hanging from the side of the snake's 

 mouth. It looked like a kind of tube or pipe, about one 

 inch and a half or two inches of which were visible. The 

 python had rather an awkward hold of the duck, having 

 begun at the breast with the neck doubled back, the head 

 forming some temporary impediment to the progress of the 

 jaws upon the prey. So the strange protuberance gave one 

 a * sort of turn,' and a shudder. It looked as if it might be 

 some part of the crushed bird, and then again it had the 

 appearance of some internal arrangement ; and another 

 shudder crept over one as the idea suggested itself that the 

 poor snake had ruptured its throat in some way. What 

 could this queer thing be, hanging on one side, as you see 

 the tongue of a horse or dog sometimes lolling sideways 

 over its lower jaw } While intently pondering and observing 

 this strange tube-like object, in size somewhat as big as the 



