OPHIDIAN A CR OB A TS. 199 



literally, scientifically true ; therefore we may suppose fingers 

 as well as a hand, and say how dexterously the creatures 

 bring their coils to their aid.) 



They have quickly strangled and begun to eat, say an 

 opossum or a turkey buzzard, when a part of the prey 

 not swallowed offers some impediment to the expanded 

 jaws ; the wings or legs may be inconveniently extended, 

 or have become wedged between some immoveable ob- 

 stacles — a log, a narrow space, or under a portion of them- 

 selves. Their mouth, the only apparent grasping agent, is 

 already occupied, and a strain sufficiently powerful, while the 

 jaws are thus retaining the prey, would be painful to the 

 feeder, might even drag back the food, to the injury of 

 the engaged teeth. How does the reptile proceed in this 

 emergency ? With the lightness and deftness of enormous 

 strength, it applies two folds of its body, two loops of its 

 own coils, and with them drags forth, lifts up, or otherwise 

 adjusts its prey in a more convenient position — in fact, 

 'presents it as in a hand' to its own mouth. 



A very remarkable instance of a constricting snake thus 

 using its coils is related by Dr. Elliott Coues, of the United 

 States army, late surgeon and naturalist to the United 

 States Northern Boundary Commission. He witnessed one 

 of those frequent combats between the Racer and the 

 Rattlesnake, in which the former — and in far less time 

 than it takes to read one line of this page — threw two 

 folds or coils round his adversary, one coil of the anterior 

 portion of his own body round one part, and a second 

 coil of the posterior portion of his own body round another 

 part, and then, by a sudden extension of himself, tore the 



