THE SNAKE AND ITS NATURAL FOES. 387 



Family^ Bovidae. — Miss Hopley* includes goats amono- animals 

 known to destroy snakes, and it is significant that the word " markhor " 

 means ''snake-eater" in Persian. Whether this noble beast has been 

 observed to eat snakes I cannot say, but the Encyclopaedia of India 

 alludes to this as a fable which is probably the case, the mountain 

 tribes believing that they can kill snakes by looking at them! 



Family — Suidse. — There is abundant evidence to prove that pio-s are 

 among the most inveterate foes that snakes have to encounter. 

 Parker Gillmoref speaking of South Indiana and Illinois says that 

 rattlesnakes used to be very plentiful there. " Their destruction was 

 principally accomplished by the introduction of hogs which greedily 

 feed upon these reptiles whenever chance throws them in their way. 

 Ij have several times had opportunities of watching a pio in an 

 encounter with one of these snakes which they worry as a Clever 

 terrier would a rat. The hog attacks the rattlesnake with such 

 energy, and rapidity that the assailed reptile has scarcely tL.. • to 

 guard himself against the attack when he finds himself in the fatal 

 grasp of his too powerful foe." 



HartwigJ again says the chief enemy of the rattlesnake is the hog 

 and Simson§ remarks that he has seen pigs catch and eat snakes 



Apropos .this porcine habit " The Cyclopaedia of India "|| has the 

 following, speaking of the Negro ophiolatry in the kingdom of 

 Whidah in Africa : — " The hog especially, which preys particularly 

 upon several species of these reptiles (snakes), and which is well 

 known to attack with impunity the most venomous of them is 

 pursued in the Kingdom of Whidah as a public enemy ; the Negroes 

 seeing only in this valuable animal an enemy which devours their 

 god." Miss Hopley^f mentions the peccary among known destroyers 

 of these reptiles. 



Class — Aves. 



The list of birds which are known to practise ophiophagy is a very 

 large one, and many of these, especially the larger raptorial species 

 must inflict a very heavy mortality among the anguine population. 



• '• Snakes," p. 57. 



t " Prairie Forms and Prairie Folk, " p. 156. 



J " The Tropical World, " p. 316. 



§ Letters on Sport in Eastern Bengal, p. 341. 



|| Vol. V, p. 56. 



1 " Snakes," p. 57, 



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