226 Mode in ii:hich the Boa Constrictor takes its Prey. 



S03IE ACCOUNT OF THE MODE IN WHICH THE BOA CONSTRIC- 

 TOR TAKES ITS PREY, AND OF THE ADAPTATION OF ITS OR- 

 GANIZATION TO ITS HABITS. BY W. J. BBODERIP, ESg. F.L.S.&C. 



In March last Mr. Cop of the Lion Oflice, in the Tower, 

 sent to inform me that one of these reptiles had just cast his 

 skin, at which period, they, in common with other serpents, 

 are most active and eager for prey. Accordingly 1 repaired 

 with some friends to the Tower, where we foimd a spacious 

 cage, the floor of which consisted of a tin case covered with 

 red baize and filled with warm water so as to produce a pro- 

 per temperature. — There was the snake positis novus exuviis, 

 gracefully examining the height and extent of his prison, as 

 he raised, without any apparent effort, his towering head to 

 the roof and upper parts of it, full of life, and brandishing his 

 tongue. 



A large buck rabbit was introduced into the cage. The 

 snake was down and motionless in a moment. There he lay 

 like a log without one symptom of life, save that which glared 

 in the small bright eye twinkling in his depressed head. The 

 rabbit appeared to take no notice of him, but presently began 

 to w^alk about the cage. The snake suddenly, but almost im- 

 perceptibly, turned his head according to the rabbit's move- 

 ments, as if to keep the object within the range of his eye. At 

 length the rabbit, totally unconscious of his situation, ap- 

 proached the ambushed head. The snake dashed at him like 

 lightning. There was a blow — a scream — and, instantly, the 

 victim was locked in the coils of the serpent. This was done 

 almost too rapidly for the eye to follow : at one instant the 

 snake was motionless ; — in the next, he was one congeries of 

 coils round his prey. He had seized the rabbit by the neck 

 just under the ear, and was evidently exerting the strongest 

 pressure round the thorax of the quadruped ; thereby pre- 

 venting the expansion of the chest, and, at the same time, de- 

 priving the anterior extremities of motion. The rabbit never 

 cried after the first seizure : — he lay with his hind legs stretched 

 out, still breathing with difficulty, as could be seen by the motion 

 of his flanks. Presently he made one desperate struggle with his 

 hind legs; but the snake cautiously applied another coil with 

 such dexterity as completely to manacle the lower extremities, 

 and in about eight minutes the rabbit was quite dead. The 

 snake then gradually and carefully uncoiled himself; and find- 

 ing that his victim moved not, opened his mouth, let go his 

 hold and placed his head opposite to the fore part of the rab- 

 bit. The Boa generally, I have observed, begins with the 

 head; but, in this instance, the serpent, having begun with 

 the fore legs, was longer in gorging his prey than usual ; and, 



in 



