5 So SNAKES. 



mouse died in less than two minutes. Echis approached it 

 stealthily and timidly, but having at last got courage to 

 seize it, ate it very quickly ; and as the snake moved and 

 dragged it, the mouse appeared to be quite stiff in that short 

 time. On the second occasion, it bit a mouse on the leg, 

 and it was five minutes dying. At first only the leg was 

 paralyzed ; then a spasm followed, and the mouse fell over 

 and lay extended fiat and still as if dead ; but presently 

 a spasmodic convulsion followed. It again appeared to be 

 dead, and the little viper approached ; but on a very slight 

 spasm receded swiftly, not once taking its eyes off the 

 mouse, which was dying slowly. The viper was at least five 

 minutes swallowing this, and as if it did not much care 

 about it. One must argue, therefore, that the charge of venom 

 had been scantily expended, as the difference between this 

 and the previous victim was remarkable. Echis poison has 

 been seen to take instantaneous effect. The small Vipera 

 atropos from the South African mountains is also astound- 

 ingly virulent. One in the collection in 1881 struck a mouse 

 as soon as it arrived, and death occurred in fifty seconds by 

 the watch. A large store of poison must have accumulated 

 during its journey and since its previous meal. 



One more African snake must be mentioned before I 

 conclude the painful duty of describing the inevitable — 

 though happily short — sufferings infiicted by venomous 

 serpents. 



Three young Najas, the well-known Ring Halsschlaiige of 

 South Africa, were brought in the spring of, I think, 1877. 

 They were very black and very shy, and for a long while 

 one could see nothing more of them than three little heads 



