no REPTILES AND BATRACHIANS 



" The snake rose immediately, dilated its hood and 

 struck savagely at the little animal, which, darting nimbly 

 out of the way, escaped being seized, and, frightened for 

 a moment, took refuge in a corner of the cage. Its stupor, 

 however, was but of brief duration, for at the very moment 

 when the Hamadryad was preparing to strike at it again, 

 the Mongoose, with open mouth and snarling, sprang 

 upon the reptile's head, bit it hard in the upper jaw, and 

 crushed its skull in a few seconds." 



Snakes have numerous external, as well as internal, 

 parasites, and specimens freshly imported from the tropics 

 are often entirely covered with blood-sucking ticks. The 

 most efficacious manner of removing these is to wash the 

 animal's body with parafHn, such treatment speedily exter- 

 minating the parasites. In captivity, at least, snakes are 

 subject to various diseases. A highly infectious, and often 

 fatal, one is a mouth disease, which in many respects 

 resembles what is known as thrush in man. It starts with 

 a small " canker " at the tip of the snout, which soon 

 spreads to the mouth, causing sloughing of the infected 

 parts, and which, unless arrested by washing with antiseptic 

 solution, often spreads to the intestinal regions. In bad 

 cases necrosis of the jaw sets in. Boas and Pythons, which 

 are specially liable to mouth disease, I find are often 

 speedily cured, if taken in hand in good time, by being 

 kept immersed in water at a high temperature, and only 

 taken out once a day for the purpose of cleansing the 

 infected parts. The previously alluded to inabiHty to 

 shed their epidermis is another very common snake 

 ailment. 



The largest snake yet recorded, a specimen of the 



