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



«nake was found, with the quills of a porcupine it had devoured, 

 penetrating its flanks between the ribs, it is probable that the 

 injuries were received whilst moving before the quills had softened 

 under the influence of the digestive function. A python already 

 referred to, which was killed by Mr. Copeland's coolies in Assam, 

 ref vised to move from its refuse in the jungle though surrounded 

 by a howling mob of coolies. After sometime, the sustained 

 apathy it exhibited stimulated the courage of the men who advanc- 

 ed by degrees nearer and nearer till they actually probed it with 

 sticks and bamboos, and made the situation so untenable that the 

 snake was forced to bestir itself. In trying to get away the 

 horns of a hog deer, which it had swallowed, penetrated its flanks. 

 It was finally despatched, and measured 15 feet. The horns of 

 the deer were about 7 or 8 inches long. Such accidents are not 

 very uncommon in snakes of all kinds — from over-distension, or 

 from mechanical causes, the beak of birds, claws of various 

 animals, etc., — and I have collected quite a number of incidents of 

 the kind. 



The old traveller's stories of pythons, boas, etc., swallowing stags 

 is not borne out by modern observations. I doubt if a python 

 ever kills any deer with horns it is not capable of swallowing. If 

 it does then sooner or later it has to relinquish its victim. 

 The old books that led one to believe that the stag was 

 swallowed up to its antlers, which projected from the mouth, 

 and remained in situ till the head rotted off" certainly misled 

 us. The only way in which the body could be retained, and 

 the head rejected would be by a slow decomposition (not a digestive 

 process) separating the head at the neck joint, a process that 

 would probably take several weeks to accomplish, and would exhaust 

 even a python's patience. The body of a stag in such a position 

 would not reach the stomach, and would not be subjected to any 

 digestive action, for the saliva is inert to animal tissues. Further 

 I doubt whether the lung could fulfil its function satisfactorily 

 even with the small oxygen requirements of a snake, when subject- 

 ed to the great and continued pressure of a carcass like a stag's. 



The digestive powers of a python depend naturally on its gener- 

 al health. Phipson found that in the hot weather in captivity 



