THEY DEVOUK EACH OTHER 



323 



hack, and fastening his sharp teeth in the head, soon despatches 

 tlie helpless reptile. 



Mongoos. 



The serpents sometimes even feed upon their own brethren. 

 Thus a rat-snake in the Zoological Gardens was once seen to 

 devour a common Coluber Natrix, but not having taken the 

 measure of his victim, he could not dispose of the last four 

 inches of his tail, which stuck out rather jauntily from the 

 side of his mouth, with very much the look of a cigar. After 

 a quarter of an hour the tail began to exhibit a retrograde 

 motion, and the swallowed snake was disgorged, nothing the 

 worse for his living sepulchre with the exception of the wound 

 made by his partner when first he seized him. 



A python in the same collection, who had lived for years on 

 friendly terms with a brother nearly as large as himself, was 

 found one morning sole tenant of his den. As the cage was 

 secure, the keeper was puzzled to know how the serpent had 

 escaped. At last it was observed that the remaining inmate 

 had swollen remarkably during the night, when the truth came 

 out. It was, however, the last meal of the fratricide, for in 

 some months he died. 



When we consider that the snakes have neither legs, wings, 

 nor fins, and are indeed deprived of all the usual means of 



Y 2 



