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work by a peculiar mode of articulation in the bones of the 

 head. All the bones of the skull are very loosely put toge- 

 ther, but the jaws are remarkably expansible. In the first 

 place, the lower jaws are much longer than the skull, com- 

 mencing behind its base; secondly, they are not hinged to 

 the upper jaw, but are suspended at the end of a pair of 

 long slender bones, which are attached to the hind part of 

 the skull by muscles and tendons so as to be very moveable; 

 thirdly, the two branches of the lower jaw, which in higher 

 animals are soldered, as it were, together, are in the Ser- 

 pents simply bound by ligaments. The result of the whole 

 arrangement is, that the mouth is capable of a most enor- 

 mous expansion. 



Most of our readers are familiar with descriptions of the 

 mode in which the great tropical Snakes — the Boas of the 

 West, or the Pythons of the East — take and gorge their 

 prey. A Serpent, whose body at its largest part does not 

 exceed the thickness of a footman's leg, and whose head is 

 not wider than a lady's hand, will readily swallow a goat. 

 We say u readily," because the process is regular and ordi- 

 nary, but it is slow and tedious, and painful to read of, and 

 much more to witness. We will not repeat the details 

 here, but merely allude to a contrivance by which the 

 function of breathing is allowed to proceed during the pro- 

 tracted interval of swallowing, when the whole throat of 

 the Serpent is distended almost to bursting by the descend- 

 ing prey, and the whole head and jaws appear irremediably 

 dislocated. These animals are furnished with peculiar 

 muscles for bringing forward the larynx, or entrance to the 

 windpipe, during the action of swallowing, as has been 

 demonstrated by Mr Joseph H. Green; and Mr Broderip 



