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LEAVES FROM THE NOTE-BOOK OF A NATURALIST. 



provement in the ordering and keeping the reptiles, 

 which must materially affect the comfort and health 

 of the fine specimens which are there preserved. 

 Generally speaking, reptiles, snakes especially, 

 are very fond of water, not merely for the purpose 

 of drinking, but of taking a bath. Most of the 

 boas and pythons, of which there is such a fine 

 show, haunt the neighborhood of waters in their 

 natural state ; and in the summer months, the 

 serpents in the reptile-house may be observed 

 availing themselves of the scanty accommodations 

 afforded them. On the 28th of July, in the last 

 year, there was not a single serpent, with the 

 exception of what may be termed the more arid 

 species, that was not making the most of the 

 milk-pans of water, that did duty for baths. It 

 was at once ludicrous and painful to see the efforts 

 of the more gigantic snakes to cool their heated 

 systems in an allowance of fresh water, which 

 would be considered stinted in a long voyage. 

 The rock-snake could do no more than get its 

 head, and no great part of its neck, into its pan, 

 and there the head lay motionless, except when it 

 was, ever and anon, plunged under the surface, 

 the brandished bifid tongue proclaiming the relish 

 with which the fevered animal, enclosed in glass, 

 enjoyed the limited relief. Think what a mag- 

 nificent sight it would be to see the Oular Sawa,* 

 and the grand Python Sebae, disporting in a well- 

 filled bath of adequate dimensions. The pans do 

 tolerably well for the smaller serpents, which show 

 the gratification that they feel by coiling them- 

 selves up in them with nothing but their head 

 out. One of these was thus coolly reposing while 

 a little fish, destined for its maw, was quietly 

 swimming about in the pan, utterly unconscious 

 of the deadly vicinage. But any one who has 

 observed the graceful sinuosities of our pretty 

 ringed snake,f in crossing a pond, must feel how 

 much is lost by depriving the spectator of a satis- 

 factory view of the animal while obeying its 

 natural instincts, to the gratification of both. 

 These snakes will take fish as well as frogs, but 

 rarely, and then most probably in consequence of 

 a scarcity of their ordinary batrachian diet. The 

 snake generally takes the frog behind, as the lat- 

 ter is fleeing from its deadly enemy ; and, in such 

 cases, the frog is swallowed rump foremost, the 

 hinder legs being protruded forwards and sticking 

 out in a sort of amorphous bunch with the head, 

 as the unhappy frog is gradually swallowed alive. 

 It is very distressing to witness this operation, 

 rendered more painful by the shrill cries of the 

 frog ; and I have more than once liberated the 

 agonized patient, while fishing, by striking the 

 serpent's head and neck with the point of my rod 

 a piece of humanity somewhat questionable, 

 especially as I do not remember that I left off 

 pulling out the trouts upon such occasions ; but 

 then they did not cry. The process of deglutition 

 is horrible to behold, and the martyred frog de- 

 scends into its living sepulchre a living thing. 



* Python reticulatus. f Natru torquata. 



Mr. Bell saw a little one, which had been swal- 

 lowed by a very large snake, leap out of the 

 mouth of the latter, taking advantage of an 

 unlucky gape of the snake after the operation was 

 over an action which is not uncommon with 

 serpents immediately after they have swallowed 

 their prey ; and he heard, on another occasion, a 

 frog distinctly utter its peculiar cry several min- 

 utes after it had been swallowed by the snake ; 

 this I can confirm. Sometimes two snakes seize 

 upon one luckless frog at the same time a joint 

 seizure, which is not very likely to happen when 

 the animals are at liberty, and in their natural 

 state, but which passed under the eyes of Mr. 

 Bell, the litigant parties being in imprison- 

 ment. 



He tells us that, on placing a frog in a large 

 box, in which were several snakes, one of the 

 latter instantly seized it by one of the hinder legs ; 

 and, immediately afterwards, another of the snakes 

 took forcible possession of the fore legs of the 

 opposite side. Each continued its inroads upon 

 the poor frog's limbs and body, till the upper 

 jaws of the snakes met, atid one of them slightly 

 bit the jaw of the other ; this was immediately 

 retaliated, Mr. Bell thinks without any hostile 

 feeling, quaere tamen, as the lawyers say ; for, 

 after one or two such accidents, the strongest of 

 the snakes commenced shaking the other, which 

 still kept its hold of the frog, with great violence, 

 from side to side, against the sides of the box. 

 Then the combatants rested for a few moments, 

 when the other returned to the attack ; and at 

 length the one which had last seized the frog, 

 having a less firm hold, was shaken off, and the 

 conqueror swallowed the prey. Mr. Bell, who 

 did not throw his warder down during this gentle 

 passage of arms, then put another frog into the 

 box, which was at once seized and swallowed by 

 the unsuccessful combatant.* 



My observations agree with those of Mr. Bell 

 in cases where the snake seizes the frog by the 

 middle of the body. The serpent then turns the 

 frog, and swallows it head foremost, as the great 

 constricting serpents do by their prey when they 

 have killed and crushed it by the pressure of their 

 enormous folds. It is curious to observe the 

 adaptation of power by these constrictors. When 

 a comparatively small boa, or python, seizes a 

 rabbit, it becomes a congeries of coils around the 

 victim ; a large one applies one fold just sufficient 

 to kill without the useless application of further 

 muscular pressure. In taking lizards and birds, / 

 the common snake swallows the prey head fore- 

 most, for the obvious reason of security ; such, at 

 least, is the result of my observation, as well as 

 that of Mr. Bell, who kept a number of these ser- 

 pents, one of which was an especial pet, and dis- 

 tinguished its master from all other persons. 

 When let out of its box it would immediately go 

 to him, and creep under the sleeve of his coat, 

 where it would lie revelling in the warmth. 



* British reptiles. 



