ON SNAKE-FEEDIXG. 583 



42. Notes on the Feeding of Snakes in Captivity. 

 By E. G. BouLEKGER, F.Z.S., Curator o£ Reptiles. 



[Received October 8, 1915 : Read October 26, 1915.] 



Some years ago, in a paper contributed to the ' Proceedings ' 

 of the Society by Dr. Chalmers Mitchell and Mr. R. I. Pocock, 

 entitled "The Feeding of Reptiles in Captivity" (P. Z. S. 1907, 

 p. 785), a general account was given of the feeding habits of the 

 Snakes then living in the Gardens, together with records of alai-ge 

 number of individual specimens, showing the amount consumed 

 between the months of May and October. My own general 

 observations tally with those of Dr. Mitchell and Mr. Pocock, 

 and my object in presenting this paper is to lay before the 

 Society some additional facts, to show how unnecessary it is to 

 feed the snakes on live creatures, and to give a detailed record of 

 the amount taken and of the regularity of the meals in a number 

 of specimens over a period of a year. 



Pi-evious to my appointment at the Gardens I had fed the few 

 snakes kept by me on live animals, being under the inflvience of 

 the popular belief either that many snakes would not take dead 

 food at all, or that, at any rate, in most cases much time had 

 to be spent in inducing them to do so. On taking over the 

 charge of the reptiles here, I confess I was surprised to find 

 how readily they accepted dead prey. I was nevertheless of 

 opinion that some individuals would not accept dead food under 

 any circumstances, and I therefore asked and obtained the 

 Secretar3''s jaermission to offer live food in certain cases where 

 dead had been persistently refused. From the summer of 1911 

 up to that of 1915, living prey was offered to nine snakes that 

 had refused the dead as food. The results given below are, I 

 think, convincing, showing that, with possible rare exceptions, 

 a snake that refuses to feed on dead animals is not more likely 

 to accept these if alive. 



1. Anaconda [Eunectes murimos). 



This snake, a large specimen, 16 feet in length, refused dead 

 food for the fii'st eight months of its captivity. A live duck was 

 offered on two occasions in the course of the first fortnight of the 

 9th month, but was refused on both. The third week it was 

 once more given dead food, and this was accepted. It has since 

 fed with the greatest regularity on dead chickens and ducks, 

 consviming on an average one a fortnight. 



2. Reticulated Python {Python reticulatus). 



This, a very large snake measuring 24 ft., had fed since its 

 arrival in 1898 with some regularity on dead kids and ducks. 

 In August 1911 it broke its jaw in the process of swallowing a 



