NOTES FROM THE ZOOLOGICAL GARDENS. 569 



into those unrelaxing jaws, he by degrees gave way, and by 

 and by was gone. 



Not far short of an hour was occupied in this meal, 

 during which the victim showed no signs of being poisoned, 

 nor were his coils round the stump relaxed in the slightest 

 degree, till Ophio reached the tail. The ring snake is not 

 a constrictor, yet he thus tied himself round the tree by the 

 coils of his tail. 



One more singular case of tenacity of life must be 

 recorded. A rincr snake had been caught in the usual 

 way, and the usual struggle ensued between captor 

 and captive. Coluber, with its head tightly gripped in the 

 jaws of his enemy, had still all the rest of himself at 

 Hberty and in full activity, and after wriggling a violent 

 protest, he coiled what was left of himself so closely 

 round the neck of his persecutor that the latter made little 

 or no progress with his dinner for a time. He seemed to be 

 deliberating how to proceed next, and asking, ' What is the 

 meaning of this?' then shook his head, lowered it to the 

 shingle, and tried to rub off the coils. The only result thus 

 achieved was that the extreme end of coluber's tail was 

 loosened for a moment, but only to coil afresh round 

 Ophio's jaws, which nevertheless slowly and surely advanced. 



For nearly an hour the progress was very slow ; but when 

 the ring snake was all swallowed except a few inches of tail, 

 these became so tight a muzzle that Ophio in turn was the 

 victim. Shaking his head and vainly endeavouring to free 

 his jaws of this muzzle, a minute or two elapsed, during 

 which he seemed to suffer some discomfort, when suddenly 

 his mouth opened widely, and out crawled Natrix, apparently 



