REPTILES. 
289 
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 iu 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 tho Pythons of the East— take and gorge their 
prey. A Serpent, whose body at its largest part does not 
exceed tho thickness of a footman’s leg, and whose head is 
not wider than a lady’s hand, will readily swallow a goat. 
We say “ 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 apjicar irremediably 
dislocated. These animals are furnished with peculiar 
muscles for bringing forward tho larynx, or entrance to the 
windpipe, during the action of swallowing, as has been 
demonstrated by Mr Joseph H. Green; and Mr Broderip 
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