The Zoologist— May, 1869. 1657 



if the latter breaks off it is swallowed at once. In captivity lizards 

 are ))rei"erred to any other description of food.' I can fully confirm 

 this statement of Wyder. The animal I have described above is the 

 only one I ever saw take its food ; the first instance occurred in this 

 way : — In the year 1857 I was in possession of such a number of 

 snakes of various species that I was obliged to place my Coronella, 

 from the Fiirstenstein Grund, in the same cage with a bliudworm 

 [Angicis fragilis) ,\i\\\ch had been there for some time already. The two 

 appeared to be good friends, and took no particular notice of each 

 other : both passed into their winter sleep as the cold came on, and 

 with the return of spring again woke up and shared the cage in peace, 

 coiled up together on the side where the sun's rays struck warmest. 

 The Anguis ate freely of the earthworms offered to it, though all 

 attempts failed to induce the Coronella to take any food : small lizards 

 placed near it were allowed to crawl away without notice, and even 

 young mice were disregarded. One morning (May 9lh) I observed a 

 great commotion in the cage : at this time the Coronella had not cast 

 its skin, nor had it eaten anything for nearly nine months : the blind- 

 worm was striving to escape the fixed gaze of its companion, which 

 was following it all over their prison. I placed some fresh water in 

 the cage, and just at that instant the snake threw itself with irresistible 

 force upon the blindworm, fixed its teeth into its head, and, flinging 

 fold after fold of its body round its victim, held it in a vice-like grip, 

 exactly after the manner of the giant serpents of the tropics ; so 

 tightly, indeed, did it embrace the unhappy blindworm, that the con- 

 tents of the latter's intestinal canal were violently forced out and 

 scattered over the glass sides : each desperate struggle of the blind- 

 worm was followed by a closer grasp on the part of the Coronella, 

 which looked exactly like a roll of tobacco, through which the extreme 

 end of the blindworm'stail protruded. The act of swallowing was very 

 slow at first: every contraction of the muscles of the throat and jaws 

 was accompanied by a lateral movement of the head — the hooked bent 

 teeth, first of one side then of the other, catching a fresh grasp of the 

 victim, and gradually drawing it in. The process of deglutition 

 began at 9'30 a.m., and was not concluded until 12*45 ; the blind- 

 worm was eleven inches long ; the head alone occupied more than an 

 hour: even at one o'clock, when the Coronella opened its jaws wide, 

 which it continued to do repeatedly after taking its food, I could still 

 see the end of the blindworm's tail; the fact was, it was too long to 

 be taken in entirely, and therefore gradually slipped down, as the 



SECOND SERIES — VOL. IV. Z ' 



