Mo c^mikes Jfasdnatc tbtir Dittims? 



By Dr. A. J. HARRISON'. 



Read Fehmanj Ith^ 1889. 



IT is a tiine-lionoured belief that snakes have the won- 

 derful faculty of fixing or fascinating tlie creatures 

 they feed • upon, either by the power of their e^^e or by 

 their very presence, so that victims become an easy prey 

 to their destroyer. This question has exercised my mind 

 for a long time, and I therefore determined to see how far 

 the opportunities I had for making observations at our 

 Zoological Gardens confirmed this opinion or otherwise. 



At the outset I particularly wish to emphasize this point, 

 that if any observations I bring forward may seem to some 

 here to be heartless and forbidding, I do hope they will let 

 me assure them, once for all, that I have no desire to appear 

 in the light of a cold-blooded observer, indifferent to animal 

 sufferings, but that I was determined to approach the in- 

 vestigation of this subject in as calm and philosophical a 

 spirit as possible. Snakes, like all of us, must eat to live, 

 and I cannot allow that my presence, and that of friends on 

 several occasions, added one iota of suffering to the snakes' 

 victims. 



There can be no doubt that from time immemorial snakes 



67 



