DO SNAKES FASCINATE THEIR VICTIAfS ? 75 



acquaintance, the white hen, and a duck were placed in the 

 Python's cage, and in the morning both had disappeared. 

 These constitiited his last meal for the year. Sage, the 

 keeper, computes that he had consumed in the year twenty- 

 two ducks and two hens, weighing on an average about 

 three pounds each. 



I have now placed before you all the important observa- 

 tions which have come under my own personal notice ; but 

 before making some general comments on the facts before 

 us, I should like to refer to some observations which have 

 been made by other observers on the subject. In Longman''.^ 

 Magazine for April, 1888, is a very interesting article on 

 " Something about Snakes," by Mr. C. T. Buckland, P.Z.S., 

 a cousin of the late Frank Buckland. On page 648, speaking 

 of Pythons, he says : " With a rapidity that can hardly be 

 conceived, a rat is seized and a fatal coil passed round, 

 squeezing all life out of it, and reducing its body to the 

 form of an elongated sausage, which the snake lubricates 

 with its slime, and swallows entire."' 



" If a fowl is put into the cage, no notice seems to be 

 sometimes taken ; and the frightened bird, finding that no 

 harm comes to it, begins to rufEe its feathers and to peck 

 about, occasionally trying its beak on the snake's skin. 

 Suddenly the snake has moved and the fowl has disappeared, 

 and can only be detected by the end of a feather or two 

 protruding from the coils in the Python's neck, which have 

 crushed the bird's life out." On page 652 is the following 

 passage : " When a large snake catches a small frog, it is all 

 over in an instant : but if a smallish snake catches a larae 

 frog, so that he cannot swallow it at once, the frog's cries 

 are piteous to hear." 



Miss Catherine Hopley, in her interesting work on 

 " Snakes," has a word to say about the " fascination of the 



