REMARKABLE EXPANDING POWER OF JAWS. 35 



One day we were feeding a captive Python. It was rather 

 a bulky fellow, a little over sixteen feet in length. One man held 

 it by the neck between his knees, which is a convenient way to 

 force open the jaws and ram down the lumps of meat or dead 

 rats. The second man held the snake near the tail-end, to prevent 

 it wrapping itself round the person who was feeding it against its 

 will. Somehow familiarity breeds contempt, or I suppose the 

 man who was responsible for the tail of the python thought its 

 fighting days were over. Anyway, he allowed it to get its tail 

 free, whereupon in his attempts to recover it the snake managed 

 to throw a coil right round the man's neck. Hearing a weird 

 sort of gurgling sound, the fellow in front threw a glance over his 

 shoulder, and saw his friend lying on the ground with his tongue 

 hanging out of his mouth, the blood-vessels of his face swollen, 

 and his eyes bulging almost out of their sockets. So tight was 

 the Python's grip that great force had to be employed to remove 

 the coil from the almost-strangled man's neck. 



Remarkable Expanding Power of Jaws. 



Snakes, with the exception of those of the burrowing and more 

 or less worm-like kind, possess the power of expanding their 

 jaws to a remarkable extent. The power varies a good deal, but 

 seems to be possessed in about the same degree by most kinds 

 of snakes. In all other vertebrate creatures the two portions of 

 the jaw-bone are knit sohdly together in front. On the contrary, 

 these two parts in snakes' jaws are attached by strong but elastic 

 ligaments. The skin of the head, neck, and body is elastic also, 

 and the various bones composing the skull are loosely attached. 

 The whole mechanism of the head, in fact, is of such a nature 

 that expansion of all the parts is easy. 



Snakes never chew their food. When about to swallow a 

 comparatively large victim, the snake usually starts operations 

 at the head. The j aws are lapped over the nose. By slow degrees 

 the body of the victim is forced into the mouth by powerful 

 forward movements of the snake's body muscles, assisted by the 

 jaws, which grip the prey, and by means of the recurved teeth 

 force it down into the throat. The whole swallowing process is 

 a succession of gulps. Gaping its jaws to their utmost capacity, 

 the snake pushes forward, taking a fresh grip and worrying the 



