ITEMS OF SNAKE KNOWLEDGE. 



473 



One night he set a wire rat-trap. Next morning a half-grown Black- 

 necked Cobra was found 

 inside the cage, with a rat 

 in its stomach. 



The Mole Snakes and 

 Boomslangs in the Port 

 Elizabeth Museum some- 

 times swallow pigeons' 

 eggs whole. The shell is 

 dissolved within twenty- 

 four hours or so by the 

 snakes' gastric juices. 



The gastric or stomach 

 juices of a snake can digest 

 bones, skin and horn. 



Snakes drink by suck- 

 ing the water into their 

 mouths. 



Snakes do not suck 

 eggs. If egg-shells are 

 found with a portion 

 bitten out and the con- 

 tents gone, probably a 

 Leguan, Meercat or a 

 Mungoose has done it. 

 Snakes cannot bite bits 

 out of egg-shells, or bore 

 holes into them. 



The tongue of a snake, 

 when in repose, is with- 

 drawn into a sheath in 

 the lower jaw. The end 

 of the windpipe hes over 

 this sheath. 



Snakes cast their skins 

 regularly. It comes off 

 inside out in a complete 

 condition, even to the 

 transparent eye scales. 



Pythons often sink 

 themselves in water with 

 the nostrils only above the 

 surface. In this position 

 they lie and watch for 

 animals coming to drink. 

 The victim is seized by the 

 nose when it stoops to 

 drink. 



Natural History know- 

 ledge in the i8th century 

 was evidently at a low ebb. 

 An author in 1796, in 

 writing about a snake, 

 says : "He hisses like a mountain eagle, and he bellows like a bull. 



