NOTE-BOOK OF A NATURALIST. 381 



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 magnificent sight it would be to see the 

 Oular Sawa,* and the grand Python Sebse, 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 themselves 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,* in crossing a pond, must feel how much is lost by 

 depriving the spectator of a satisfactory view of the ani- 

 mal while obeying its natural instincts, to the gratification 

 of both. These ringed snakes will take fish as well as 

 froo-s, 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 latter 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 iny 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 descends into its living 

 sepulchre a living thing. Mr. Bell saw a little one, which 



* Python reticulatus. t Natrix forquafa. 



