THE START 19 



feed greedily on other snakes in the presence of man — I 

 knew of one case where it partly swallowed another snake 

 while both were in a small boy's pocket. It is immune 

 to viper poison but it is not immune to colubrine poison. 

 A couple of years ago I was informed of a case where one 

 of these king-snakes was put into an enclosure with an In- 

 dian snake-eating cobra or hamadryad of about the same 

 size. It killed the cobra but made no effort to swallow 

 it, and very soon showed the effects of the cobra poison, 

 I believe it afterward died, but unfortunately I have mis- 

 laid my notes and cannot now remember the details of the 

 incident. 



Doctor Brazil informed me that the mussurama, like 

 the king-snake, was not immune to the colubrine poison. 

 A mussurama in his possession, which had with impunity 

 killed and eaten several rattlesnakes and representatives 

 of the lachecis genus, also killed and ate a venomous coral- 

 snake, but shortly afterward itself died from the effects 

 of the poison. It is one of the many puzzles of nature 

 that these American serpents which kill poisonous serpents 

 should only have grown immune to the poison of the most 

 dangerous American poisonous serpents, the pit-vipers, and 

 should not have become immune to the poison of the coral- 

 snakes which are commonly distributed throughout their 

 range. Yet, judging by the one instance mentioned by 

 Doctor Brazil, they attack and master these coral-snakes, 

 although the conflict in the end results in their death. It 

 would be interesting to find out whether this attack was 

 exceptional, that is, whether the mussurama has or has 

 not as a species learned to avoid the coral-snake. If it 

 was not exceptional, then not only is the instance highly 



