OPHIDIAN A CR OB A TS. 203 



three to five feet, of an inconspicuous colour, but with two 

 black lines on each side, running the whole length of their 

 body ; hence their name, ' four-lined,' or ' four-rayed.' In 

 the present instance, there were in the same cage three of 

 these, also one young royal python, one small common boa, 

 and one 'thick-necked tree boa' {Epicratis cenchris), all con- 

 strictors. The day was close and warm for April, and the 

 snakes, reviving from their winter torpor, seemed particularly 

 active and lively. Probably they had not fed much of late, 

 and thought now was their opportunity, for the keeper no 

 sooner threw the birds — finches, and plenty of them for all — • 

 into the cage, than there was a general scuffle. Each of 

 the six snakes seized its bird and entwined it, then on 

 the part of the reptiles all was comparatively still. The 

 rest of the poor little birds, fluttering hither and thither, 

 were, however, not disregarded, for although each snake was 

 constricting its captive, several of them captured another bird 

 by pressing it beneath them, and holding it down with a 

 disengaged part of themselves. One of the four-rayed snakes 

 felt its held-down victim struggling, and instantaneously a 

 second coil was thrown round it. Then another caught a 

 second bird in its mouth, for its head and neck were not 

 occupied with the bird already held, and in order to have 

 coils at its disposal, slipped down its first captive, or rather 

 passed itself onwards to constrict the second, the earlier 

 coils not changing in form in the slightest degree, any 

 more than a ring passed down a cord would change its form. 

 The next moment I saw one of those two hungry ones with 

 three birds under its control. It had already begun to eat 

 the first, a second was coiled about eight inches behind, and 



