204 THE HISTORY OF ANIMALS. [B. TTII, 



most, ; the kite rarei}^ drinks, though it has been observed 

 to do so. 



CHAPTER VI. 



1. ANIMALS covered with scaly plates, as the lizard and 

 other quadrupeds and serpents, are omnivorous, for they eat 

 both flesh and grass, and serpents lick their prey more than 

 any other animal ; all these creatures, and indeed all with 

 spongy lungs, drink very little, and all that are oviparous are 

 of this kind, and have but little blood. Serpents are all 

 very fond of wine, so that they hunt the viper by placing 

 vessels of wine in the hedge-rows, and they are captured 

 when intoxicated. Serpents devour any animal that they 

 may have captured, and when they have sucked out the 

 juice, they reject all the remainder ; nearly all such animals 

 do this, as also the spiders. But the spiders suck the juice 

 without swallowing the animal. Serpents suck the juice 

 internally. 



2. The serpent swallows any food which may be presented 

 to it, for it will devour both birds and beasts, and suck eggs. 

 When it has taken its food it draws itself up, till it stands 

 erect upon its extremity, it then gathers itself up and con 

 tracts itself a little, so that when stretched out the animal 

 it has swallowed may descend in its stomach ; it does this 

 because its oesophagus is long and thin. Phalangia and 

 serpents can live a long while without food, this may be 

 seen in those that are kept by dealers in medicine. 



CHAPTER VII. 



1. AMONG viviparous quadrupeds, those that are wild and 

 have pointed teeth are all carnivorous, except some wolves, 

 which, when they are hungry, will, as they say, eat a certain 

 kind of earth, but this is the only exception. They will not 

 eat grass unless they are sick, for some dogs eat grass and 

 vomit it up again, and so are purified. The solitary wolves 

 are more eager for human flesh than those which hunt in 

 packs. 



2. The animal which some persons call the glanus and 

 others the hyaena, is not less than the wolf, it lias a mane 

 like a horse, but the hair all along its spine is more harsh 

 and thick. It also secretly attacks men, and hunts them 



