SOME OF OUR PETS. 29 



grown puff-adder, though we once saw him kill and 

 eat a small young one in the garden, beating it to 

 death with his strong feet, and then swallowing it at 

 one gulp. He was like a boa-constrictor in his capa- 

 city for " putting himself outside " the animals on which 

 he fed — ^lizards, rats, toads, frogs, fat juicy locusts, 

 young chickens, alas ! and some of the smaller pets 

 if left incautiously within his reach, even little kittens 

 — all went down whole. The last-named animals were 

 his favourite delicacy, and he was fortunate enough 

 while at Walmer to get plenty of them. His enormous 

 appetite, and our difficulty in satisfying it, were well 

 known in the neighbourhood, and the owners of several 

 prolific cats, instead of drowning the superfluous pro- 

 geny, bestowed them on us as offerings to Jacob. They 

 were killed and given to him at the rate of one a day. 

 Once, however, by an unlucky accident, one of them 

 got into his clutches without the preliminary knock on 

 the head ; and the old barbarian swallowed it alive. 

 For some minutes we could hear the poor thing mew- 

 ing piteously in Jacob's interior, while he himself stood 

 there listening and looking all round in a puzzled 

 manner, to see where the noise came from. He evi- 

 dently thought there was another kitten somewhere, 

 and seemed much disappointed at not finding it. 



One day, when there had been a great catch of rats, 

 he swallowed three large ones in succession, but these 

 were almost too much even for him ; the tail of the 

 last rat protruded from his bill, and it was a long time 

 before it quite disappeared from view. The butcher 



