THREE COMMON REPTILES 



never forget the piteous cry that I heard a 

 frog give when thus seized by a snake. It was 

 a pretty little foreign green tree frog, which, 

 as I have mentioned elsewhere, had been left 

 in the same cage with a grass snake that had 

 gone on ' hunger strike.' The snake had not 

 eaten naturally for so long, that I thought it 

 was quite safe for a short time with the frogs, 

 but a weird and heart-rending cry made me 

 rush to the cage, only to arrive too late to do 

 more than see the tips of the poor frog's little 

 green hind toes disappearing down the snake's 

 neck. It was impossible to rescue it, and I only 

 hope that its sufferings were quickly ended by 

 the strong digestive acids of the snake's inside. 

 When a grass snake has had a good meal, it 

 hides somewhere and sleeps it off, perhaps not 

 coming out again for a week, for these creatures 

 do not eat very often. In captivity they will 

 often refuse to feed altogether, and would 

 starve themselves to death if not fed forcibly. 

 The snake in question, which recovered its 

 appetite so suddenly and unexpectedly, had 

 been hunger striking for two months, and I 

 had had to feed it regularly. Once a week I 

 caught a little frog, slew the poor mite, and 

 then with the help of a blunt stick pushed the 



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