10 THE LAND-MARKS OF 



selves as it were, and after wriggling and strag- 

 gling about in this state for some time, relax 

 their hold. Then one would be seen gliding away, 

 vanquished, to the corner of the cage, while the 

 triumphant one raised to its full balancing height, 

 hissed out its challenge for a renewal of the combat. 

 In what consisted of getting the worst of it, I 

 could never discover, as neither of the combatants 

 ever seemed any the worse for the fight; nor can 

 I understand why one snake dreads another if no 

 danger is involved.* The head is almost in- 

 variably the point of attack, though less injury 

 could be inflicted by the fangs there, than in 

 several parts of the body. Snakes are singularly 

 inactive in their habits. Even in warm weather, 

 when they are the least sluggish, they will lie 

 together in a knotted mass, only occasionally 

 changing their position, and then relapsing into 



* Weir Mitchell says, he is convinced that the poison 

 of the Crotalus can kill itself when hypodermically inject- 

 ed. Fayrer did not think that the poison of the cobra 

 was ppisonous to itself. The question, apparently so easy 

 to decide, is really a very difficult one, as the snake 

 sometimes dies very rapidly in captivity. I came to the 

 conclusion, after numerous experiments, that one species 

 of snake could kill another. 



