222 WILD ANIMAL CELEBRITIES 



ing by their color and streaming perspiration 

 that this was no child's play. In this case, 

 two rabbits were given. The skins had been 

 pulled off as far as the heads and turned back 

 over them, thus forming a more lubricating 

 substance for passing down the python's 

 throat. After the insides of the rabbits had 

 been taken out, they had been dipped in 

 water to make it easier still, and the whole 

 proceeding went off without a hitch. 



Do not suppose, however, for one moment 

 that the python did not resist; as soon as his 

 mouth was pried open, which he resented 

 fiercely, he resisted with all his strength, every 

 nerve and fibre of his nervous body quivering 

 with the effort. He gave such a sudden lunge 

 at one time that I quite expected to see the 

 whole lot of men tumble over and, had this 

 happened, it would have been, of course, a 

 serious thing. But they are a nervy lot of 

 men in the New York Zoological Park, and 

 held on to that python like grim death. 



I stood about a foot, and sometimes less, 

 from the python's mouth, and it was a great 



