88 A NATURALIST IN BORNEO 



snake makes no attempt to surround it with coils of 

 its body, but if the prey is of large size, or if it 

 struggles violently, then it may be embraced in one 

 or more coils. When the victim is suffocated the 

 Python * " passes its head all round the prey, playing 

 over it with its forked tongue, and by some means 

 other than that of sight, as the choice is made equally 

 in the dark, perhaps by the sense of touch in the 

 muzzle or lips, selects the head of the carcase to begin 

 the process of swallowing." The amount that a 

 Python of over 20 feet long can swallow is some- 

 thing astounding. Mr. Ridley states that a specimen 

 measuring 22 feet in length that was brought to him 

 at the Botanic Gardens in Singapore contained the 

 remains of a deer, and I have seen a specimen of 

 1 8 feet in length which had just swallowed a large 

 pig ; in this example the middle of the body was 

 enormously distended, so that the skin was stretched 

 almost to bursting-point, and the scales, instead of 

 lying side by side and almost overlapping, were 

 situated quite far apart, and between them it was 

 possible to see the hairs of the pig through the skin 

 and stomach-wall of the snake. This power that 

 snakes have, of swallowing very large masses, is, as is 

 well known, due to the loose attachment of the 

 various bones by which the jaw apparatus is slung on 

 to the skull, permitting a wide gape to be made ; the 

 mandibles, or lower jaws, also are not fused in front 

 but the two halves are merely joined by elastic tissue. 

 The process whereby a Python swallows its meal has 

 been described as follows: 2 "It gives a huge gulp 



1 Mitchell and Pocock, P.Z.S., 1907, p. 786. 

 3 Ibid., p. 787. 



