462 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol XXI. 



a snake. Major Seal}- of the 4th Gurkhas tells me that a reliable 

 old Gurkha Officer told him that once when officiating at a funeral 

 pyre, a python emerged from the water hard by, seized the 

 corpse, and made off with it. 



Usually in captivity live animals have until recently been given 

 to the snakes in various Zoological gardens, but now that it is 

 known that pythons among other snakes will accept dead food, 

 the order has changed. The fact that they would eat dead animals 

 was noted 15 years ago in this Journal hj Ferguson* who says 

 "they will eat a dead rat, or rabbit, just as readily as a live one." 

 He further states that under these circumstances it makes no 

 attempt to constrict, but proceeds to swallow at once. In 

 Regent's Park for some j^ears now, man}^ of the snakes have been 

 fed entirely on dead animals. f Dr. Chalmers Mitchell, who paid 

 special attention to this, says it was not noticed that it made any 

 difference whether the food was freshl}- killed, warm, or bleeding, 

 or if dead for sometime. It was noticed that in many cases the 

 prey was not taken until night, and this was particularly the case 

 when pythons took large animals like goats. He further states 

 that the pythons showed their readiness to feed by special restless- 

 ness and activity, often leaving the tanks in which they have been 

 lying previously, and that they are specially alert when thej^ hear 

 movements in the passage behind their cages, or when the back 

 door are moved, and in the words of the keeper " they are asking 

 for food.f'' 



The habit of constricting is characteristic of the whole family — 

 boas and pythons alike. The snake, roused to activity by the 

 sight of food, advances towards its prey often with quivering tail 

 and makes a sudden dash at it with open jaws, which are no 

 sooner closed upon its victim than it throws a coil or two — accord- 

 ing to the size of the quarry — round it, holding it as in a vice until 

 its struggles have completely ceased when it relaxes its embrace 

 and proceeds to swallow it almost always beginning at the head. 

 Dr. Chalmers Mitchell says " there appears to be no special attempt 

 to crush the prey, to suffocate it or to break its bones." I 



* Vol. X, p. 69. t Dr- Chalmers Mitchell, P.Z.S., 1907, p. 785, et seq. 



