Reptiles. 9509 



the tail, which instantly broke off: without troubling itself, for the 

 moment, about the owner of the tail, the Coronella gulped down the 

 disjointed member, which was struggling actively, in consequence of 

 muscular irritation, and once more started in pursuit of the maimed 

 lizard. Again it failed in securing it properly, but caught it by the 

 back of the head, and began swallowing it from there. As the hinder 

 extremities were much broader than the fore part the act of deglutition 

 took a considerable time, very nearly five hours, during all of which 

 the lizard was alive, and active too, for it bit the snake internally, and 

 compelled it at last to coil itself round, and so swallow the remainder. 

 For some reason or other, perhaps from fatigue, it will be observed that 

 the animal, in this instance, departed from its usual habit of twining 

 itself round and strangling its prey ; but I am certain that it does so 

 destroy lizards before swallowing them. In fact, it was in this way 

 that it killed the small one which was devoured on the 14th of August, 

 one of the days on which it cast its skin, as mentioned above. 



From this time to the day of its death, which occurred in March, 

 1859, the Coronella ate nothing more, though tempted with a variety 

 of food : frogs, newts, &c., remained unnoticed and untouched. In 

 this respect it differs from Tropidonotus natrix, whose diet consists 

 mainly of these last-named animals, while it rejects lizards and blind- 

 worms, or at least devours them only when pressed with hunger. 

 Neither has it ever fallen to my lot to observe in the Coronella those 

 peculiar convulsive movements of the muscles, caused by excessive 

 irritation, which are not uncommon in Tropidonotus ; nor, again, the 

 ejection of the prey which it has once swallowed. In fact, I imagine, 

 that this last circumstance never occurs with Coronella, owing to its 

 slowness of deglutition and rapidity of digestion. The latter, indeed, 

 is so active that I have known the portion of the prey enclosed in the 

 stomach to be in a state of decomposition, while the other portion was 

 still outside the jaws. 



The crushing of its prey in the folds of its flexible bodv, previous 

 to devouring it, is a necessity with the Coronella, as appears by a 

 reference to the anatomy of its skull. So slight are the powers of 

 expansion in its jaws that they may be considered as entirely waulino-, 

 when compared with its relative, Tropidonotus, nor has the skin the 

 extraordinary elasticity which the latter enjoys. The structure of the 

 Coronella might, therefore, be called imperfect, but that Nature, if she 

 limits on one point, invariably makes compensation on another. Hence 

 the singular flexibility of the Coronella's vertebral column enabling it 

 to compress its prey and prevent its escape. Tropidonotus natrix has 



