ENEMIES OF SEEPENTS. 
87 
ENEMIES OF SERPENTS. 
Serpents have numerous enemies among animals. Uni- 
versally detested, man kills them, indifferent whether they 
be venomous or inoffensive, wherever he detects them. All 
the countries of the globe produce certain mammifera, that 
pursue serpents with persevering keenness. With us, it is 
chiefly the badger, the hedge-hog, the weasel, the martin, 
and the pole-cat, that contribute to the destruction of ser- 
pents ; in the tropical countries of the ancient Continent, 
they encounter terrible enemies in the civet, the ichneumon, 
and other carnivora. Several birds wage on them a con- 
tinual war, such especially is the serpent-eater of the Cape, 
mounted on its long stilt -like legs, as it would seem on purpose 
to render the bites of snakes ineffectual ; in South America, 
the laughing falcon, and other birds of prey, pursue them 
eagerly ; the large storks of India, such as the gigantic 
Ciconia, destroy an immense number of serpents ; in Europe, 
we should reckon among their enemies besides the storks, 
ravens, kites, and several buzzards. In tropical seas, there 
exist sharks that devour with avidity the sea-serpents ; and 
lastly, many Ophidians make war on each other, not even 
sparing their own species. 
By transplanting animals, the enemies of serpents, into 
countries infested by them, we might perhaps prevent the 
too great multiplication of these dangerous reptiles. This 
attempt has been made, by transporting the Snake-eater of 
the Cape to the French West-Indian sugar-colonies per- 
haps the mammifera which we have mentioned, or the storks 
might render them as good or better services. 
We can easily kill serpents by blows with a stick, and 
breaking their vertebral column ; but besides that this method 
could only be adopted with the smaller species, it has the 
disadvantage that the specimens thus killed are of little 
utility for the cabinet. To avoid this, it is better to fix 
them to the earth with a stafp provided with a sort of 
pincers on its end, by which their bodies may be seized 
* Cuvier, Regne Animal^ tom, i. p. 339, 
