4 



THE PINE SNAKE OF NEW JERSEY. 



a very beautiful functional arrangement all this is ; for as might 

 be conjectured, when swallowing its prey entire, the tongue must 

 be put out of the way. In this emergency it actually disappears 

 from the mouth altogether, being withdrawn at the orifice men- 

 tioned. Drinking, with the pine snake, is a slow affair. I have 

 several times watched it by the clock. Once it drank exactly live 

 minutes without taking breath. It then paused, looked about for 

 three minutes, and went at drinking again, occupying precisely 

 five minutes as before, thus making ten minutes. The amount of 

 water drank was a little over a gill. Previous to this drinking 

 she had been without water four weeks. 



The reptiles have seemed to me specially to be capricious and 

 fastidious about feeding in confinement. The pair of small pine 

 snakes mentioned at the outset ate young chickens just from the 

 nest, but would not touch mice. My large one for a whole month 

 after laying her eggs had not eaten anything. ' A young chimney 

 swallow was given her, but,- though the little thing fluttered and 

 cried, she took no notice of it. A .young chick three days old was 

 offered, nor would she notice it. Both birds were removed unhurt, 

 in tact, untouched. A rat with a limb broken by the trap was 

 next put in her box. Her attention was at once aroused. After 



ing the rat on its side with her nose. With a squeak, the poor 

 thin- turned its face towards its grim :iss:iilant. The latter with 

 head erect, but motionless, and tongue quivering, kept its eyes 

 steadily on its victim. There was a sudden spring, and the rat's 

 nose was in the grip of the monster's mouth. Quickly, but delib- 

 erately, the snake held its victim against the side of the box ; then 

 setting the sharp edge of each of the long scuta or abdominal 

 scales on the floor, as a fulcrum, brought a part of its body, like 

 the convex side of a strong bow, against its prey, forcing it to the 

 side of the box with a compression that made the bones of the rat 

 give a crackling sound. The suffering of the victim was but for 

 a moment, as I have no doubl that the spine was broken instantly. 

 Although the prey was quite dead, there was still that singular 



was relaxed. Quietly now the snake began the act of swallowing 

 its prey. It commenced with the head. The action of the crea- 

 ture is very interesting. It is not by a uniform movement of the 

 entire prey that the swallowing is performed. The snake opens 



