120 STORY OF THE REPTILES 



swallowed prey and all. But in such cases as those 

 where the blacksnake and other nimble snakes attack 

 the rattlesnake, the victim is seized behind the head 

 and often enclosed in the folds of its captor. There is 

 also an effort always to drag the victim in some defi- 

 nite direction, progress and resistance being affected 

 by the tails of each curling about anything which can 

 be reached. It is a very exciting contest of skill, 

 strength, and peculiar tactics. 



Enemies 



Perhaps there is no better connection than this to 

 speak of the many enemies which the Reptiles have, 

 besides man. Tortoise-forms are so well pi'otected 

 that natural foes do not so readily get at them. It 

 is said by Pliny, however, that a Grecian poet was 

 killed by a tortoise which an eagle let drop from a 

 point high in the air — thus hoping perhaps to crush 

 its shell. Since it is well known that some crows — 

 especially the fish-crows of our I^orthwest coast — rise 

 thus with shell-fish and drop them to crush them on 

 the rocks, this story does not seem so improbable. 

 Yultures and other birds of prey are sometimes able 

 to kill and devour a poorly protected turtle far from 

 water. 



Alligators when grown have few enemies except 

 man, but their eggs and their young are eaten not 

 only by nearly every creature in search of prey but 

 by the old male alligators. Lizards are eaten by 

 birds of prey, wading birds, and others. Snakes also 

 eat them when they can catch them, and the lizards 



