i88 
THE LIVING WORLD. 
its body about it, strangles it. Finally having crushed the larger bones, the 
process of deglutition is begun, which may last for several hours; the head 
invariably being the first to pass into the gullet, the body following. As the 
teeth all point inwards, and the jaws are successively and alternately pushed 
forward and drawn back, the prey, if not too large, is thus of necessity 
drawn into the mouth. The reptile may, however, find that its food is not 
suitable, or it may need to take breath, and though the prey has passed some 
way down the oesophagus, it is not unfrequently disgorged, making its appear¬ 
ance as a most frightfully contorted mass, covered with mucus from the ali¬ 
mentary tract; its slimy appearance having undoubtedly given rise to the 
false notion that the animal covers its prey, previous to deglutition, with saliva. 
For some time after the reptile has taken a large meal, it is, either from 
fatigue or from the 
effects of so loading 
its stomach, ex¬ 
tremely lazy and 
inactive, being not 
infrequently quite 
indifferent to what 
may be going on 
about it. The in¬ 
activity of menag¬ 
erie specimens, how¬ 
ever, is due to the 
enfeebling effect of 
a cold climate, rather 
than torpor result¬ 
ing from overfeed¬ 
ing, or gentleness from kind treatment. 
It is in their native forests that these 
forms must be studied to be admired. 
Not only are the caged animals inactive, 
but the purple bloom, so characteristic 
of the healthy animal, is invariably 
defective or lost; the rough treatment 
to which they are subjected, as well as 
a disease of the jaw—caries—rendering 
them indifferent and unhealthy. 
“ It is not an unusual occurrence 
giant boa and rattlesnake. for the female python, which exceeds 
the male in size, to deposit her eggs 
while in confinement and watch over them with the most. zealous care. Ob¬ 
servations have been made which prove that the eggs are actually incubated. 
The mother, after arranging them in a convenient pile, coils her body, the 
temperature of which is considerably above the normal, around and over them, 
remaining in this position until the eggs, at the end of about three months, 
are hatched. . We have here among the reptiles an undoubted instance of 
maternal solicitude.” Mr. Kingsley might have added that the python’s solici¬ 
tude is imitated by a great many snakes, as already shown. 
