1887.] REV. G. H. R. FISK ON THE DESTRUCTION OF SNAKES. 341 



hamachates) was written for me at my request by my friend Mr. 

 Sydney Cowper, who, you may remember, was the Cape repre- 

 sentative at the late Colonial and Indian Exhibition. His name is 

 guarantee of strict accuracy. 



" I send you a copy of his writing, thinking it may be interesting, 

 showing as it does a way in which perhaps many young snakes are 

 destroyed. Were not an imm.ense number of the eggs and of the 

 young of snakes destroyed by their natural enemies, their number 

 would soon in some parts become so great as to be very inconve- 

 nient indeed to other animals and to man also. 



" I have long known that cats kill snakes. I have seen a lizard 

 kill a snake. You will remember a snake which I sent to your 

 Society which had devoured the eggs laid by another snake, and now 

 we have an instance of a Mouse killing and eating a young venomous 

 snake. 



" Probably there are many other ways in which great numbers 

 are destroyed before they reach an age and size when they become 

 very dangerous. 



" 'On Saturday the 19th February my friend Mr. W. Holms and 

 I managed to secure on Wynberg flats, without injury to the 

 specimens, two young ' Ringhals,' probably from 7 to 14 days old, 

 measuring the one some 10 inches and the other 9 inches in length. 

 "We brought them home in our handkerchiefs, placed them in a band- 

 box, and proceeded to find food for them. A tour round the garden 

 (Rokeby, Wynberg) produced one tortoise, one toad, one field-mouse, 

 one cricket, two spiders, and some gentles. These, excepting the 

 toad, were all placed in the bandbox with the two snakes, and 

 we expected to find the snakes in good condition the following 

 morning. 



" ' On looking into the box next morning I found but three sur- 

 vivors of the previous night, namely the tortoise, the mouse, and one 

 'Ringhals.' The mouse had evidently had the best of it, for he 

 was devouring the remains of one of the snakes, and, judging by the 

 distention of his little abdomen, I think he must also have con- 

 sumed the ciicket, spiders, and gentles. I watched the survivors 

 attentively during Sunday, and saw the mouse make an onslaught on 

 the remaining Riugiials. He fastened on the snake's back with his 

 tiny sharp claws and pecked away with his teeth, the snake trvino- 

 its utmost to wriggle away and to secrete itself under the tortoise, 

 which it eventually managed to do. The snake seemed much 

 frightened, and, although he struck at the mouse frequently, and 

 sometimes with apparent success, tiie mouse generally avoided tiie 

 stroke with the utmost agility, and before letting go had ridden 

 three or four times round the bandbox on the snake's back. I 

 imagine that the fang of a young 'Ringhals' is not sufficiently 

 developed to penetrate the thick hair on a mouse. I have written 

 this account to you, as the fact of the mouse having eaten the snake 

 is antagonistic to the generally conceived idea of reptilian customs. 



" 'The Ringhals left for England by the R.M.S. Hawarden Castle 

 on the 2nd inst., and the mouse I returned to his habitat under the 

 stump of a tree in the garden, and although 1 have several times 



