30(5 SPOLIA ZEYLANICA. 



can also be moved in addition to the palatines — two parallel bones 

 lying along the palate , and usually bearing teeth ; and each of the 

 four jawbones is capable of independent action. 



The food of the snake, if furred or feathered, is swallowed head 

 first, and is drawn into the mouth by the alternate protrusion and 

 retraction of each of the upper and lower jawbones, which are 

 armed with short needle-like teeth curving backwards. The move- 

 ments of the lower jawbones occur after the upper jaw has been 

 pushed as far forward as possible over the food. If the animal to 

 be eaten is small, it is drawn into the mouth; if it is large, the 

 snake draws his mouth over it, though the action, in each case, is 

 the same. 



When once the food is in the mouth, the palatine teeth come into 

 play and assist in pushing the food into the gullet. When a snake 

 has anything at all large in its mouth, and is in danger of choldng, 

 it will ease its breathing by protruding the end of the windpipe 

 beyond the lower lip, which it is enabled to do by the elasticity of 

 the skin at the base of the former. When once the food is in the 

 gullet, the snake proceeds to draw its body over it, gripping it with 

 the muscles of the throat, and curving its body so as to get a 

 purchase against it. In other words, the snake draws itself over its 

 food until its stomach reaches it, the process being much faciliated 

 by the oily condition of the gullet. As the ribs of the snake are 

 only loosely attached to the vertebrae, and the undersurface merely 

 composed of shields of thick skin, and is innocent of breast bone, 

 the body is capable of much expansion. 



Snakes, particularly pythons, will sometimes saliver their prey, 

 apparently to assist digestion, but this is not invariably the case, 

 and I have never seen a snake saliver a reptile, though it will often 

 tongue one it has killed to discover the size, whether it is palatable, 

 and whereabouts the head is. 



After swallowing, a snake usually gapes several times, moves 

 about a bit, and then coils up and goes to sleep. 



Anuradhapura, May 4, 1912. A. F. ABERCROMBY. 



37. Whi'psnakes. — This morning I found one of my green "whip- 

 snakes " {Dryophis mycterizans) , about 4| feet long, in the act of 

 swallowing a smaller whipsnake. I do not think it was a case of 

 deliberate cannibalism, as I have always kept these snakes together 

 and never known of them swallowing each other before. Probably, 

 in this case, they had both seized the same frog, and the smaller 

 snake had refused to leave go and got swallowed with the frog. 



At any rate, the snake that was being swallowed appeared to be 

 dead, and only moved its tail occasionally, which I supposed to be 

 merely muscular action after death, and I allowed the larger snake 

 to go on swallowing. When the head reached the stomach, there was 



