216 THE ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



it had no power to throw its body into curves, but lay at 

 full length, with the skin so distended that the scales were 

 separated. It seems a mistake to call the swallower a cannibal. 

 The whole business was probably an accident. Having swallowed 

 its own pigeon, there is Httle doubt that the larger boa struck 

 at the bird still within the jaws of its companion, thus en- 

 veloping not only the pigeon, but the head of the other boa. 

 Once its teeth were fixed, the process went on mechanically, 

 and there could be no other result. Bartlett expected that the 

 boa would be unable to digest its fellow, and would disgorge 

 it. This was not the case. On November 2 the reptile had 

 regained its normal proportions, and took another pigeon. " It 

 will be seen by this," he said, in his report to the Scientific 

 Meeting of November 20, "that a serpent of eleven feet in 

 length can not only swallow and digest another serpent only 

 about two feet shorter, but is ready to feed again twenty-eight 

 days afterwards." 



This case differs widely from that of the king cobra or 

 lamadryad, which feeds almost entirely on other snakes. Many 

 instances of such accidental swallowing are on record. One of 

 the most curious is that related by Messrs. Mole and Urich 

 of an innocuous snake, known in Trinidad as the " cribo." 



A cribo once in our possession struck at a mouse and caught his own 

 tail ; this he diligently swallowed, until at least one-fourth of his entire 

 length disappeared down his own throat. In this position he looked like 

 the numeral eight (8). After some minutes' consideration he disgorged.* 



The Queen's ostrich died in 1895, and the aye-aye in 1896, 

 in which year Jung Pershad, the male Indian elephant deposited 

 by the Prince of Wales (now King Edward VII.) on his return 

 from India in 1876, fell dead in his stall. In 1897 the reticulated 

 python, presented by Dr. Hampshire in 1876, was lost by death. 

 For two years it had not taken food voluntarily, but had been 

 crammed by the keepers. It was the largest specimen ever 

 exhibited in the Gardens, and it is doubtful if a finer one has 

 ever been seen in captivity. The stuffed skin is now in 

 Mr. Rothschild's Museum at Tring. 



Begum, the hairy-eared rhinoceros, acquired in 1872, died in 

 the last year of the century; and a serious loss was that of 



* Froceedinffs, 1894, p. 509. 



