AFRICA. 75 
I requefled that the diflance betv/een the 
place where the bird had experiencea the con- 
vulfions, and that occupied by thi? ferpent be- 
fore it was fhot, might be meafured. Upon 
idoirlg fo, we found it to be three feet and a 
half, and we were all convinced that the fhrike 
had died neither from the bite nor the poifon 
of its enemy, I ftripped it alfo before the whole 
company, and made them obferve that it was 
untouched, and had not received the flighteft 
wound. 
I had my reafbns for what I did. Extraor- 
dinary as the fad: may appear, and though the 
perfons who had been the witnefles could 
hardly believe, even after having feen it ; it 
was to me not new. A fimilar adventure had 
happened to me in the canton of the Twenty- 
four Rivers, and I iuftantly related it to cou- 
firm what we had juft feen. 
Hunting one day ina marfliypiece of ground, 
I heard all at once, in a tuft of reeds, a piercing 
and very lamentable cry. Anxious to know 
what it was, I ftple foftly to the place, where I 
perceived a fmall moufe, like the fhrike on the 
tree, in agonizing convulfions, and two yards 
farther a ftrpent, whpfe eyes were iiitently 
fixe4 
