236 THE TOWER MENAGERIE. 
site to that of his victim, coiled himself once more around 
it to compress it into the narrowest possible compass, 
and then gradually propelled it into his separated jaws 
and dilated throat; and finally presents a disgusting 
picture of the snake when his meal was at an end, with 
his loose and apparently dislocated jaws dropping with 
the superfluous mucus which had been poured forth. 
The individual figured at the head of the present 
article is a female; a fact which was proved by the 
remarkable circumstance of her producing in May last, 
after having been more than two years in the Menagerie, 
a cluster of eggs, fourteen or fifteen in number, none 
of which, however, were hatched, although the mother 
evinced the greatest anxiety for their preservation, coiling 
herself around them in the form of a cone, of which 
her head formed the summit, and guarding them from 
external injury with truly maternal solicitude. They 
were visible only when she was occasionally roused ; in 
which case she raised her head, which formed as it were 
the cover of the receptacle in which they were enclosed, 
but replaced it again as quickly as possible, allowing to 
the spectator only a momentary glance at her cherished_ 
treasures. 
