122 THE STORY OF REPTILE LIFE. 



turned and swallowed head foremost, and for 

 some time afterwards may be seen wriggling 

 within the body of the captor. 



Contrary to what might be expected, the un- 

 fortunate victims do not seem to suffer much 

 injury during their passage to oblivion, for on 

 rare occasions and they are very rare the 

 captive is returned unhurt to the light of day. 

 Dr Gadow gives an instance of one such restora- 

 tion : " One very tame snake," he says, " had 

 swallowed a frog on my table when a friend 

 entered the room. The snake was frightened, 

 jumped on to the ground, striking it with its 

 full belly, and thereby hurting the frog, which 

 squeaked loudly ; whereupon the snake reversed 

 its mechanism and the frog hopped away, none 

 the worse for its terrible experience." 



Those snakes which kill their prey before 

 swallowing, do so by one of two methods by 

 crushing, or by poison. 



Perhaps the best known of the crushing or 

 constricting snakes are those of the Python tribe, 

 which contain within their ranks the largest of 

 living snakes. Between sixty and seventy species 

 are known, of which the "Anaconda" of the 

 tropical forests of South America is the largest, 

 though the Indian Pythons, Python molurus and 

 Python reticulatus, run it very close, attaining a 

 length of thirty feet. These enormous creatures 

 can crush a tiger or an ox with comparative 

 case, though the tales of such bulky animals 

 being swallowed afterwards cannot be credited. 

 The prey is apparently seized by a sudden spring 

 and immediately encircled by coil after coil of 



