CONSTRICTION. 33 
at his face. My friend, being young, active, and quick-witted, 
dodged the stroke. Summoning assistance, he returned to 
find the cobra making the most desperate efforts to disgorge 
several eggs, the shape of which could plainly be seen in 
the reptile’s body. The eggs, however, were too smooth, 
slippery, and heavy for the disgorging mechanism of the snake 
to grip and expel, so the robber, perforce, was held captive, 
because the five eggs in its stomach weighted him effectually 
down. Rigging up a noose, my friend got it round the snake’s 
head and carefully dragged it forth. An assistant seized the 
tail ; my friend placed the heel of his heavy boot on the reptile’s 
head and smashed it. Then, taking out his penknife, he cut open 
the cobra’s abdomen and recovered his property. Washing the 
slimy mucus off the eggs, they were replaced in the nest, and the 
hen was coaxed to return. These five eggs hatched out all right, 
and the chicks grew up into five fine Black Minorcas, one of which, 
for many years, was cock-in-chief of the farmyard fowls. 
Snakes cannot suck eggs, but some snakes swallow eggs whole, 
the powerful digestive juices dissolving the egg-shell usually within 
twenty-four hours. Sometimes the remains of the shell are cast 
up, or perhaps it is completely dissolved or broken up very fine 
and passed with the excreta. The Boomslang (Dispholidus 
typus) I have frequently observed to swallow birds’ eggs, which 
lodged in its stomach, the fragments of the shells of which, if at 
all hard, were cast up the following day. Pigeon’s eggs frequently 
remained whole inside the snake for a couple of days. 
There is, however, a species of true egg-eating snake which 
has been provided by Nature with a special set of enamel-tipped, 
tooth-like bony projections in the throat, for the purpose of 
sawing through egg-shells and releasing the contents, which are 
squeezed down the throat of the snake, the crushed shell being 
spat out afterwards. 
CONSTRICTION. 
Some of the slightly venomous and the majority of the non- 
venomous snakes kill their prey by constriction. The snake, 
with unerring aim, makes a dart, seizes its prey by the head, 
usually the nose, and instantly coils around it, crushing its life 
out within a few minutes. Two coils, sometimes three or more, 
are thrown round the body of the prey. A well-known authority 
D 
