The Zoologist— September, 1869, 1811 



On another occasion, a snake in some way entered ray rabbit-house 

 and swallowed three young rabbits, about one-third grown, in suc- 

 cession : he was of about the same size as the last, and was prevented 

 getting away for a similar reason. I cut him open, and found the 

 rabbits in his stomach apparently uninjured, saving that all their bones 

 were crushed soft: the white fur was not even soiled. 



In a similar way a snake was stopped in my pigeon-house, it 

 having swallowed a pigeon. 



From the above instances it will be seen that snakes do great injury 

 in a poultry-yard ; but whether they generally strike the fowls with 

 their fangs, or whether they simply frighten them to death, 1 cannot 

 say. I have carefully examined at least a score of fowls so killed, 

 and could never find a mark of a bile. The native idea is that they 

 spit poison at their victims, but this is manifestly absurd. 



On a fourth occasion, August 18lh, 1864, at Banaras, I took un- 

 broken from the inside of a cobra a guinea-fowl's egg, which had 

 passed downwards eighteen inches. 



Now that I am on the subject of snakes the following narrative, 

 which I believe to be correct, may be held to be interesting. During 

 the rains (.Tune 1861) two of my servants were very keenly in search of 

 a snake-stone. This is, as is well known, held to be an unfailing 

 antidote to snake-poison, and the jiopular idea is that it may be found 

 inside the head of any large bull-frog which has been seen to swallow 

 a bird ! They saw a very large yellow frog seated at the side of a 

 deep water run, and watched htm ; a number of common minas 

 {Acridotheres tristis, Linn.) were hopping about near quite fearlessly 

 when the frog sprang upon one of them, and caught it in his mouth. 

 He had seized him by the head, and the tail, feet and ends of wings 

 were sticking out. It appeai-s that the frog had been on the bank, 

 and the birds a little below, by the water's edge, and that the former 

 had sprang on the latter from a distance of nearly a yard. They 

 attempted to knock over the frog by throwing a stick at him, but he 

 jumped into the water, which was breast-high, with mud at the bottom, 

 and so escaped them, although they kept watch on him for two days 

 as much as they could, being very anxious to secure the valuable 

 stone. 



Here follows an account given me by the late Dr. Cheke, of Banaras, 

 relative to the habit of the large Indian " ram" frog of catching birds, 

 of which there is also an account in vol. iii., p. 285, of Maclelland's 

 'Calcutta Journal of Natural History,' whereby the account just given 



