xm. SNAKES. 195 



was one of the poor little rabbits. I watched a python 

 again and again bring his nose near the friendless little 

 rodent, but he skipped away a foot or so. Once the 

 unsuspecting creature nibbled at the nose of the python, 

 making it recoil in surprise. But at last there came the 

 cruel snap, and there was a general exclamation of " pauvre 

 lapinf" from the spectators. As I turned away from 

 a sight most interesting but most painful, I saw a python 

 rob another of a pigeon which it had partially swallowed. 

 Seizing the leg of the bird, he jerked it aw ay, drawing the 

 other snake after it, and managed to throw a coil round 

 the pigeon and the snake's head. The first python managed 

 to free his head from the coil, but the procedure seemed 

 to have taken away his appetite ; for he relinquished his 

 hold. It was not, however, until he had yawned his 

 widest several times that he succeeded in freeing his teeth 

 from the neck of the bird. Had it gone further, I doubt 

 if he could have done so. 



Pages might be filled with the various means by which 

 the snake is adapted to its peculiar mode of life ; or 

 rather modes of life, for there are tree-snakes as well as 

 ground-snakes, sea-snakes as well as land-snakes. By 

 sea-snakes I do not mean sea-serpents. I only once saw 

 a sea-serpent, many years ago in Table Bay. Most 

 remarkable was its undulating movement through or over 

 the waves. But it incontinently resolved itself into a 

 long flight of sea-birds, just skimming the surface of the 

 water. There are however genuine sea-snakes, and very 

 venomous, though not very enormous, they are. They 

 may often, I am told, be seen in the clear waters of the 

 Bay of Bengal. In spite of their great resemblance in 

 the form of the head, colour, mode of life, and general 

 appearance, it has been recently suggested that the three 

 genera (Enliydris, Hydropliis, and Distira) have sprung 



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