390 SNAKES. 



sufficient quantities. The most surprising circumstance in 

 connection with this style of feeding, and also with the 

 process adopted by Dr. Shortt of Madras in filling his 

 cobras * as full as they could hold ' with sour milk, is that 

 these fastidious and frightened reptiles did not disgorge 

 the diet. Both experimentalists, however, found it answer, 

 reminding us of some advice given to the keeper at the 

 London Ophidarium in the case of the Hamadryad, 

 which, having no snakes to dine off one winter, elected 

 to fast. To force frogs or fish down its throat was 

 suggested ; but no one could be found brave enough to 

 undertake the task, and happily ' Ophio ' survived till a 

 relay of ring snakes arrived. 



Both Mitchel and Coues corroborate what has been 

 observed by others regarding the increased virulence of 

 the bite when moulting ; but both are of opinion that this 

 is owing to an accumulation of venom, as the snakes have 

 not been feeding or expending their store for some days. 

 Even while not feeding, their venom is secreted all the 

 same, and they survive many months, even a whole year 

 and more, without food. Dumeril mentions one that lived 

 twenty-five months without feeding. 



A startling and almost horrifying demonstration of what 

 physiologists would perhaps attribute to nervous or to 

 muscular irritability is described by Dr. Mitchel, namely, 

 an action that had been begun in life, carried out in a 

 headless snake. On p. 281 was described the astonish- 

 ment of Colonel Beverley, who observed the severed head 

 of a rattlesnake attempting to bite. ' Then the head 

 gave a sudden champ.' Long after a snake is dead the 



