THE BoA-ConstRicTors. 303 
too great size, that part of the body which had been in 
the snake’s mouth and throat will be found to be abun- 
dantly covered with the saliva poured out during the 
process of swallowing. In confinement, at any rate, it 
not unfrequently happens that objeéts are thus disgorged 
after being nearly taken down ; and it would seem to be 
due to their being too large, thesnakesattempting, through 
hunger, to prey upon what, ordinarily, in nature, would be 
left alone. The salivation, therefore, is not the prelimi- 
nary to swallowing, but the result of it. 
The operation of swallowing, which in all snakes is 
very considerably prolonged, becomes slightly modified 
in the constri€tors owing to the use of the folds of the 
body in holding the prey, so that they are enabled to 
push their jaws more easily over it. As in these forms 
there is generally a greater disproportion between their 
size and that of the obje&ts swallowed, than in other 
kinds, this hand-like a€tion of the coils. of the body be- 
comes of importance. 
Their anterior teeth, too, are stronger and more re- 
curved than in other non-venomous snakes, and are 
direGtly of use in securing a firm hold of their prey, 
and thus in allowing the coils of the body to be thrown 
with certainty and lightning-like rapidity around the 
objet, ere any aét of defence can take place. Animals 
with strong and sharp teeth, such as the Peccary and 
the Capybara, would make but short work of the slen- 
der neck of the snakes were they not rendered per- 
feétly helpless by the enwrapping coils at the very instant 
of seizure. Thus secured, any movement or struggle on 
the part of the prey, is only met by a tighter clasping of 
the coils of the snake, nor are they relaxed until all 
