1883. | Anthropology. 897 
neighbor by the head, as the water snake lately referred to was 
caught, he goes down head first; if caught by the middle, as I 
once knew to be done, he is swallowed double, and in this case 
the swallower was but six inches longer than the swallowed. 
The seven red squirrels I took from the body of my black snake 
followed each other head first. a most positive evidence of fasci- 
nation, since it is hardly possible that such unbroken succession 
could be the result of any other process. But the snake is not 
the only creature that swallows “big things.” I once cut from 
the throat of a hawk the foot, leg, shoulders, and shoulder blade 
entire of a muskrat. I once took from the neck of a merganser 
a sucker thirteen inches long whose head girth was double that 
of the duck. I cut from the throat of a heron a chicken as large 
as a woodcock, and sat almost an hour as “crowner's quest” be- 
foreit got through my thick skull what those soft yellow feet and 
bill belonged to. This capacity for extension is common among 
birds and reptiles, owing to the flexibility of the posterior con- 
nection of jaws or mandibles, they being held together by muscu- 
lar contraction, and not by articular joints as in mammals; dis- 
ae does not produce dislocation.—2. Horsford in Forest and 
tream. 
BATTLE oF Ravens.—The Frankfurt (Germany) Journal writes : 
The gardener, Mr. Georgius, from Ginnheim, called at our office to- 
day with a chest full of dead ravens, victims of a battle which was 
fought high in the air among a flock of over four hundred of these 
birds near the above-mentioned village. The ravens formed to- 
gether into three detachments, and as if at a given signal flew at 
each other, and with savage cries seemed as if they would tear 
each other’s eyes out or their heads off with their beaks. he 
ground was soon covered with the bodies of over fifty birds, which 
were picked up by observers. Wounds on other parts of the body 
except the head could not be found. The blows on the head ap- 
peared on close observation to have been given with such force 
that one was sufficient to destroy life. The cause of the battle 
was doubtless the fact that the pairing season of the birds was 
near at hand. Not only the males but also the females partici- 
ay in the fight, as bodies of the latter were found among the 
slain. 
ANTHROPOLOGY. !' 
THe Society oF AmeRICAaNIsTs.—The Congrès International 
des Américanistes will be held in Copenhagen, 21-24 August, 
under the patronage of Christian IX. Letters should be addressed 
to M. W. A. Carstensen, general secretary. All persons interes- 
ted in early American history, by paying twelve francs, may be- 
come members, and will receive the published volume. The sum 
should be remitted to M. Tietgen, directeur de la Banque privee 
lEdited by Professor Oris T. Mason, 1305 Q street, N. W., Washington, D. C. 
