AND PERSONALITY 



of killing at its worst. But from the viewpoint of the needs 

 of the python, the steady pressure around the chest of its 

 victim until asphyxiation produces death leaves the maxi- 

 mum of nourishment in the flesh 

 of its prey. 



Why should not the python itself 

 suffer in this deadly embrace ? The 

 adrenal glands of all animals are 

 soft and easily crushed. The blood 

 vessels in the adrenal glands and 

 the gland tissue itself are almost as 

 vulnerable as brain tissue. Yet the 

 python puts pressure on every part 

 of his own body in his ropelike 

 coil. In the terms of the spherical 

 adrenal glands found in most warm- 

 blooded animals, the python would 

 have crushed his own adrenal 

 glands as easily as the body of his 

 victim. The adrenal glands of the 

 python follow the pattern of a 

 shoestring and are tucked away 

 effectively from the pressure of a 

 tight embrace. 



The bird has to feed its fur- 

 nace continuously in order to 

 maintain its warm-blooded state. The python gorges, then 

 lies in a semicomatose state until hunger requires that it 

 feed again. A comparison of a cold-blooded python weighing 

 6,140 grams with a warm-blooded sparrow weighing 24.03 

 grams shows that the weight of the brain of the python 

 (1.123 grams) barely exceeds the weight of the brain of the 

 sparrow (1.031 grams). As a corollary, the heat production 

 or metabolism of the cold-blooded python and that of the 

 warm-blooded sparrow are approximately equal. 



FIG. 



4. The adrenal 

 of a python. 



glands 



