218 ANECDOTES. 



Prom the experiments which I made in 

 Calcutta, it appears clear, that snakes do not 

 always possess the same power of destroying 1 

 life It is, however, a doubt with me whether 

 they expend any of their venomous fluid in 

 swallowing and digesting their food, as they 

 do in killing it; if they do, their bite soon 

 after eating will not be so mortal, as after 

 long fasting, in fact what ever they do eat 

 I believe they first kill ; at all events, I con- 

 ceive the longer it has been contained in 

 their bodies the more venomous it is, and the 

 hotter the weather the thinner the venomous 

 fluid. 



I have teized them with a piece of cotton 

 and made them expend their poison into it, 

 and then gave them a fowl to kill, which was 

 a considerable time in dying. It is not fabu- 

 lous, but true, that they sometimes take their 

 prey by fascination. I once witnessed it in 

 company with Captain Trench of the Bengal 

 Native Infantry. Sitting on a terrace near 

 the house, we observed a small bird on a tree 



