130 



favourite articles of food, whilst young birds, lizards, tree- 

 frogs and grasshoppers are the food of the tree-snakes. The 

 ■water-snakes live on fish, and the amphibious land-snakes, 

 such as Tropidonotus qwincunciatus, catch the fish which 

 inhabit the mud of marshes and irrigated fields.* A large 

 python might possibly manage a kid, or a fawn of the smaller 

 species of deer, but the stories of their swallowing goats, 

 stags, men, and oxen are pure travellers' tales. A full 

 grown cobra is very much distended when it has managed 

 to swallow a rat of half a pound weight, that is, about 

 one-fourth of its own weight. Many of the burrowing 

 snakes live on worms and insects, and some snakes actually 

 live on their brethren, at least on other snakes ; they are 

 probably hard up for food at the time. There is no reason 

 why a snake should not swallow another snake nearly as 

 big as himself if he gets the chance ; I have seen two snakes 

 who had caught the same frog between them manoeuvre 

 very cleverly when their noses met ; the one who got his 

 head within the other's jaw would certainly have gone down 

 along with the frog if he had not freed himself from the frog 

 and the snake too by a sudden effort. When young, snakes 

 live on larvse, flies, young geckoes and other lizards until they 

 are big enough to manage the usual prey of their species. 



Snakes drink water freely ; I have frequently counted 

 above a hundred gulps of water go down before the drinker 

 was satisfied. I have never succeeded in inducing a snake 

 to drink milk, though, when water was afterwards ofiered, it 

 drank eagerly. The stories, ancient and modern, of snakes' 

 sucking cows' teats and robbing dairies appear to be doubtful. 



I am not altogether satisfied with the common account of 

 the manner in which some snakes (the Pythons) are said to 

 kiU their prey, viz., by crushing it in their folds. The pres- 

 sure which the largest snake can exercise is very mild indeed, 



* Piscibus atram 



Improbus ingluviem ranisque loquacibus implet.— Virgil. 



