64 FAMILIAR LIFE IN FIELD AND FOREST. 



appalling. It is one of those "ways" of the snake 

 which, as I have already said, we do not like. Now 

 we sometimes facetiously remark on the facility with 

 which a small boy " gets around " a large piece of pie. 

 The expression, however, more exactly fits the case 

 of the snake ; he truly gets around his prey with a 

 courageous disregard for its formidable dimensions. 

 His head is scarcely half an inch thick, yet down 

 goes the frog between his distended jaws, and yet it 

 measured not a whit less than an inch and a half in 

 diameter. Now the simple fact is, the bones of the 

 serpent are held together by elastic ligaments, and 

 the reptile's capacity is correspondingly elastic. The 

 teeth, too, are set with a backward curve, and by 

 slightly working the jaws* the kicking frog is 

 worried down by slow degrees in spite of a slippery 

 hide which, were it not for those tiny, sharp, re- 

 curved teeth, might assist him in the struggle for 

 freedom. But he is doomed, and in less than ten 

 minutes his toes disappear, and he proceeds on a 

 lumpy course to the stomach of the reptile, smoth- 

 ered. Immediately after swallowing the frog the 

 snake gives a ghastly wide-mouthed gasp or two, as if 

 choking to death. But no such thing ! he is merely 



* These are formed of no less than four sections, two above 

 and two below, each of which is worked more or less independ- 

 ently. 



