SNAKES : THE PYTHON 97 



The process of killing takes some time. Wolhuter 

 heard a duiker scream in a bush a little distance away ; . 

 it took him nearly ten minutes to find the animal, which 

 was in the grip of a twelve-foot python. After the 

 latter had been disposed of, the buck was discovered to 

 be still alive and without a single bone broken, though 

 so severely crushed otherwise that it had to be killed. 

 Wolhuter considered that it would have taken another 

 ten minutes at least completely to squeeze the life out 

 of it. Some of my natives rescued a young duiker which 

 a python had just seized, and brought it to me. It was 

 much bruised, and unable to walk for some days, but 

 with a little attention completely recovered, and is now 

 the mother of an increasing family at the Transvaal 

 Zoological Gardens. 



Having crushed the life from its victim, the snake next 

 proceeds to swallow it, head first. The body has pre- 

 viously been manipulated into an elongated roll, the 

 limbs protruding straight fore and aft. In the course of 

 being swallowed it becomes covered with the saliva which 

 drips freely from the reptile's jaws and materially assists 

 the operation, but there seems to be no ground for the 

 old belief that the snake deliberately licks its prey all 

 over. 



Duikers and other buck are swallowed horns and all; 

 the latter, like the bones, being ultimately dissolved by 

 gastric action. A python is now and then found lying 

 torpid, the horns of a buck protruding through the 

 skin without apparently any inconvenience being felt. 

 No doubt after a time they would drop off, and the 

 puncture close up. The digestion of a large animal 

 takes some time, and during the process the snake is 

 helpless, and consequently at the mercy of any enemy 

 that may find him. It consequently endeavours either 



