THE HABITS OF SNAKES. 



47 



victim, and thus in many cases one snake is swallowed by 

 another. 



Of course, it is not desirable to keep the bulky Python with 

 the other kinds of snakes. He is an inoffensive fellow, but his 

 huge bulk, which he cannot help dragging along with him, is 

 apt to injure snakes over which he might happen to crawl. Also 

 he has a habit of poking about and endeavouring to thrust him- 

 self out of sight into small holes and crannies, and in this way he 

 makes chaos of the little interior arrangements of the enclosure 

 designed for the convenience of the smaller reptiles. 



A snake-house should be so situated as to be well sheltered from 

 wind and rain, and so arranged that the sun may at all times 

 of the day, from sunrise to sunset, shine into some portion of it. 

 Great care should be taken that the snakes have cool places into 

 which to retire when the sun is very hot. Free access to air 

 must be given, so that the snake-house may not get unduly 

 heated. 



I once lost a large collection of snakes by allowing the air to get 

 too hot inside the snake-house. The sun heated the glass and 

 wooden partitions, which naturally had the effect of raising the 

 temperature of the air considerably. Every snake perished with 

 the heat, although they were not subjected to direct sunshine. 

 Testing the degree of heat with a thermometer, I found the air 

 registered a hundred and six degrees Fahr. 



If you hold the belief that snakes are very tenacious of life, 

 abandon that belief, for they are not. When mangled they may 

 twist, writhe, and squirm for many hours, but nevertheless a 

 snake is very easily killed. A slight injury will cause death, not 

 necessarily at once, but perhaps a week or a month later. At the 

 Port Ehzabeth Museum I used to wonder why we had such a great 

 mortality amongst our live snakes which were sent us by kind 

 friends in various parts of the country. On skinning them my 

 assistant discovered various discolourations, showing that they 

 had been struck or otherwise knocked about when being captured. 

 At first I used to dissect out the fangs, and sometimes the maxil- 

 lary bone on which they are fixed. I found that in the majority 

 of cases abscesses formed which caused the snake to cease eating. 

 When fed artificially the mouth invariably bled, the abscesses 

 grew worse, and the snakes pined and died. 



In some experiments which I conducted with a view of 



