1894.] OPHIDIA OF TEIXIDAD, B. W. I, 515 



raised its head, but immediately resumed its quiescent attitude. 

 Subsequently it suddenly bit the visitor near the tail. The poor 

 little victim was at once released aud crawled about as lively as 

 possible, but with the tail raised. Five minutes later it laid its 

 head down — slightly on one side ; its body twitched as if in pain, 

 and three minutes later it was dead. The Coral at once seized 

 the dead snake four inches from the head, then worked it through 

 its jaws to within an inch of its head. It then let go, and, seizing 

 it again, worked down the body for about three-quarters of its 

 length. It let go again, and then went up to within an inch of 

 the head, worked up to the muzzle, and got it into its mouth, and 

 proceeded to swallow by sharp sidelong jerks following each other 

 in rapid succession. After it had got the dead snake half down, 

 it began to make the drawing muscular motions which is a charac- 

 teristic in the feeding of Boa Constrictor and other Ophidia, the 

 jaws doing no work at all. After swallowing the Coral yawned 

 several times. During the first part of the operation the Coral 

 held its Anctim down by a bight of its body 2| or 3 inches from 

 where its jaws were working. The swallowed snake was nearly as 

 thick as the Coral, and when the latter was going through the 

 preliminary of passing the former through his jaws, there were to 

 be heard sundry little cracks as if the bones were being broken. 

 The whole operation of killing and gorging lasted an hour. In 

 consequence of a fright the Coral disgorged during the night. 



(3n the night of July 3rd another snake of the s^ame species 

 (15 inches loug) was introduced at 7.59 p.m. It crawled about 

 cautiously. At 8.4 the Coral raised its head, and the visitor lay 

 down perfectly quiet. The Coral began to move about, and at S.llg 

 caught its prey 2| inches from the tip of the tail, and, contrary to 

 the first occasion, retained its hold. At 8.15| the victim was 

 dying and turned over on its back. At 17 minutes past 8 when 

 examined it was quite dead — 5^ minutes from the time of being 

 bitten. 



On July 21st at 8.15 p.m. the Coral was lying in a corner of its 

 box,on a lamp-lighted table, perfectlyindilferent to its surroundings. 

 A Liojjhis melanotus (17 inches long) was introduced. The Coral 

 roused immediately, and glided about with such rapidity and 

 attacked its victim with such vigour that it was bitten three times, 

 almost before we realized the fact. At the last bite the Coral 

 held the Liophis about the middle of the tail. Four minutes 

 afterwards the victim was dead. The quick lateral motion in 

 swallowing was again observed, and the operation in this case 

 lasted ten minutes. 



These observations are interesting because they prove that the 

 assertion that snake-poison has very little immediate effect upon 

 the Ophidia, thus being useless in the capture of their prey, is an 

 erroneous one. They are interesting also because they prove that 

 the creatures feed on other snakes besides the Calamaridse. 



On July 29th we shaved the thigh of a large full-grown male 

 rat, and forced the Coral to bite it at 8.3 p.m. The rat appeared 



