THE SNAKE. 45 



We have, indeed, an example of similar action in the case 

 of the Manx cat, who, being descended from an ancestor 

 which had, either by traps or otherwise, the misfortune 

 to lose his tail, begot a race of tail-less cats, whose descend- 

 ants have to the present day lacked the usual caudal 

 appendage. If, then, a cat could transmit this accidental 

 peculiarity to his descendants, there can be no reason to 

 doubt that, in some cases, a snake having lost his poison 

 fangs could be the father of a race of snakes similarly 

 deficient. 



As might be expected, the largest snakes all belong 

 to the non-venomous species. Being unprovided with the 

 teeth that enabled their congeners to slay their prey or 

 combat enemies, the fangless snakes would naturally devise 

 other means to procure a living. Having no offensive 

 weapons, they would recognise at once that some entirely 

 novel means must be hit upon. They could neither bite 

 nor tear their prey : they could neither stun it with blows, 

 nor, like the crocodile, drown it. It was, we may suppose, 

 to a snake of exceptional genius that the idea occurred of 

 squeezing a foe to death. The idea was, doubtless, received 

 with enthusiasm, but to be carried into effect against any 

 but the smallest of creatures it was clearly necessary that 

 the fangless snakes should attain far larger dimensions than 

 those possessed by any of the species furnished with poison 

 fangs. However, the idea once mooted, Mr. Darwin's 

 system of natural selection would do the rest. The smaller 

 individuals remained small, and from them sprang the blind 

 worm and other species of harmless snakes. The larger 

 individuals paired together, and keeping the one object 

 steadily before them, in time their descendants attained the 



