04 



Reaching over, T gave the tree a gentle whack' with my hatchet, 

 and as I did so I was astonished to see the old cuckoo struggle from 

 the nest and fly away. What caused her to calmly remain on the nest, 

 while a three and one-half foot black snake coiled around her, I can- 

 not say. It may be that the stealth}' snake had gained his position 

 unobserved by the bird, but certainly it was the rap I gave the tree 

 that caused her to fly to safety. 



Climbing a nearby sapling, where I could see in the nest, I observed 

 that, instead of eggs, young birds were there, and these were having 

 their lives squeezed out by the snake, which was coiling tighter all the 

 time, with the two little nestlings' heads protruding above his shiny 

 rings. All the time the snake was watching me closely, anon warning 

 me by protruding his tongue, but not for an instant did he stop pre- 

 paring for breakfast. 



After a few minutes his coils began to relax, and with one long 

 winding kink of his neck and forebody, he reached over to the nestlings 

 and began swallowing the first one. The size of the young cuckoo 

 was greatly out of proportion to the snake's head, — being at least 

 three times as large, — yet his jaws extended and slipped entirely over 

 the bird. A great knot appeared in his neck', as the swallowing process 

 forced the dead bird down into the snake's stomach. As the lump 

 went down the serpent's neck, 1 felt a lump come up into my own 

 throat as I witnessed the fate of the poor little baby cuckoos. 



The same process was gone through in disposal of the second 

 young, then his snakeship coiled himself on the nest, and turned his 

 head over his shiny body, for a lazy repose. But I decided that tins 

 act should not be an end to my observations. Therefore I climbed 

 from my cramping position and shook the snake from his position, 

 but not until I had shaken the cuckoo's nest entirely away. 



I pon the ground, the snake could not run, owing to the two 

 great lumps in his body. He tried to defend himself by striking, but 

 1 soon had him killed and dissected. The young birds were covered 

 with a slimy fluid, and had 1 not witnessed the recent killing and 

 devouring, I might have thought them to have been in the snake's 

 bodv for several hours. 



