216 . Mr. Broderip on the Mode in which 



to be ever so hard) compressed as they roust have been by its 

 passage downwards." 



At p. 257, he notices the agony and distress of the prey in 

 terms so lively, that it is impossible not to sympathize with " the 

 poor goat" and to feel " all the horrors of its perilous situation." 



I will take these two points in the order in which they are 

 quoted : but, before I arrive at them, it may not be thought im- 

 pertinent if I state that the serpent which was shipped at Batavia 

 was probably not a Boa but a Python, (all the species of the. 

 former genus yet discovered being natives of the New World;) 

 and, if I give some account of the manner in which the Boa Con- 

 strictor takes its prey in this country. 



In March last Mr. Cop of the Lion Office, in the Tower, sent 

 to inform me that one of these reptiles had just cast his skin, at 

 which period, they, in common with other serpents, are most 

 active and eager for prey. ■ Accordingly I repaired with some 

 friends to the Tower, where we found a spacious cage, the floor 

 of which consisted of a tin case covered with red baize and filled 

 with warm Avater so as to produce a proper temperature. — There 

 was the snake " positis novus exuviis," gracefully examining the 

 height and extent of his prison, as he raised, without any apparent 

 effort, his towering head to the roof and upper parts of it, full of 

 life, and brandishing his tongue. 



A large buck rabbit was introduced into the cage. The snake 

 was down and motionless in a moment. There he lay like a log 

 without one symptom of life, save that which glared in the small 

 bright eye twinkling in his depressed head. The rabbit appeared 

 to take no notice of him, but presently began ^o walk about the 

 cage. The snake suddenly, but almost imperceptibly, turned his 

 head according to the rabbit's movements, as if to keep the object 

 within the range of his eye. At length the rabbit, totally un- 

 conscious of his situation, approached the ambushed head. The 

 enake dashed at him like lightning. — There was a blow — a scream 

 — and, instantly, the victim was locked in the coils of the serpent. 

 This was done almost too rapidly for the eye to follow : at one 

 instant the snake was motionless; — in the next he was one con- 

 geries of coils round his prey. He had seized the rabbit by the 



