372 
HAMPSTEAD ROAD. 
One day in June, being engaged on the Hamp- 
stead R/oad, above Content, in capturing the insects 
that were then so abundant about the blossoming 
trees, — I observed on a shrub two little Anoles 
playing ; one had seized the other’s tail in his mouth, 
and they were thus gamboling about the twigs in 
innocent sport, altogether unsuspicious of the lurk- 
ing foe that was near. While I was looking at their 
gamesome tricks, all at once I became aware of a so- 
called Poison Snake, not a large one, silently and 
stilly watching them also. Suddenly he caught one, 
and throwing his head off the branch along which he 
had been lying, held the victim suspended in the 
air. It had been seized just behind the fore legs, 
but by an almost imperceptible motion of the jaws, 
the hold was gradually shifted forward until the 
Lizard’s head was in the mouth of the Snake, and 
was rapidly sucked in by the alternate motion of the 
two sides of the jaws. There was no boggling about 
the fore legs ; they were out of sight almost before 
I was aware ; but one of the victim’s hind feet had 
taken hold of a twig, and resisted the sucking in. 
The Snake had now drawn up his head again upon 
the branch ; giving a sudden jerk, he made the 
Lizard relinquish its hold of the twig, and in the 
same instant the leg was engulfed. Of course, no 
impediment now was left ; but when the last vestige 
of the tail was disappearing, I tapped the neck of the 
Snake smartly with a switch, and it fell to the 
ground disabled and dying. I transferred it to a 
bottle of spirit, and it is now in the British Museum ; 
