1824 The Zoologist— September, 1869. 



Mr. Henderson, and that the reptile had swallowed seven rats in one 

 day ! From what I afterwards saw I can almost believe it. He 

 added that after the Dewali (the festival of Lights, about six days 

 hence) his head would become his tail, or that rather his tail end 

 would come into work as a mouth. He was put into a round earthen 

 pot (gharrah), and live rats were at once ordered for him. On the first 

 rat being put into the vessel, the mouth being incautiously left open, 

 it jumped out, when my dog Fanny, who was watching the operation 

 with great interest, rapidly accounted for it : another was brought and 

 put in, and the mouth closed ; a little rustle was heard, and when we 

 reopened the gharrah we found that the snake had encircled the rat in 

 a threefold coil, and completely crushed him. The reptile had then 

 turned his head, and seizing the rat by the nose began to draw him 

 in : his jaws, which at first had looked so small, gradually distended 

 as the eyes, ears, fore-feet, and ultimately the whole rat, disappeared. 

 Dr. Tyler, who was present, having frightened the snake, he disgorged 

 the rat with the greatest apparent ease ; but he took it down again, 

 when he was returned with it into the earthen vessel. He next swallowed 

 the other rat which Fanny had killed, having first similarly encircled 

 it ; and I firmly believe he could have swallowed three or four more. 

 The eyes were extremely small, and in life, unless this snake possesses 

 a wonderful power of fascination, it could never catch a live rat : 

 the body, of course, swelled to fully twice its original size after the 

 meal, and they are said to be able to go without food for months, 

 although, when food is taken, it does not take long to digest. In this 

 they resemble the boa family, as also they appear to do in many other 

 respects. What astonished me more than anything else, was the ease 

 with which the food was disgorged: this was, however, greatly facili- 

 tated by the abundant flow of saliva, with which the disgorged animal 

 was so covered as to be quite slippery ; whilst every bone in his body 

 appeared to have been completely crushed in the fearful squeezing he 

 had undergone ere being swallowed. 



" I had intended making notes on this snake, but after lying in a 

 dormant state digesting his food for five days he became active, and 

 one night poked a hole through the cloth tied over the mouth of the 

 vessel, and so escaped." 



Relative to the power snakes have of disgorging their prey, I quote 

 the following, under date September lllh, 18G7, from my note- 

 book : — 



