a log without one symptom of
life, save that which glared in the small bright eye twinkling in his
depressed head. The rabbit appeared to take no notice of him, but
presently began to walk about the cage. The snake suddenly, but almost
imperceptibly, turned his head according to the rabbit's movements, as if
to keep the object within the range of his eye. At length the rabbit,
totally unconscious of his situation, approached the ambushed head. The
snake dashed at him like lightning. There was a blow--a scream--and
instantly the victim was locked in the coils of the serpent. This was done
almost too rapidly for the eye to follow; at one instant the snake was
motionless--the next he was one congeries of coils round his prey. He had
seized the rabbit by the neck just under the ear, and was evidently
exerting the strongest pressure round the thorax of the quadruped; thereby
preventing the expansion of the chest, and at the same time depriving the
anterior extremities of motion. The rabbit never cried after the first
seizure; he lay with his hind legs stretched out, still breathing with
difficulty, as could be seen by the motion of his flanks. Presently he
made one desperate struggle with his hind legs; but the snake cautiously
applied another coil with such dexterity as completely to manacle the
lower extremities, and in about eight minutes the rabbit was quite dead.
The snake then gradually and carefully uncoiled himself, and finding that
his victim moved not, opened his mouth, let go his hold, and placed his
head opposite the fore-part of the rabbit. The boa, generally, I have
observed, begins with the head; but in this instance, the serpent having
begun with the fore-legs was longer in gorging his prey than usual, and in
consequence of the difficulty presented by the awkward position of the
rabbit, the dilatation and secretion of lubricating mucus were excessive.
The serpent first got the fore-legs into his mouth; he then coiled himself
round the rabbit, and appeared to draw out the dead body through his
folds; he then began to dilate his jaws, and holding the rabbit firmly in
a coil, as a point of resistance, appeared to exercise at intervals the
whole of his anterior muscles in protruding his stretched jaws and
lubricated mouth and throat, at first against, and soon after gradually
upon and over his prey. When the prey was completely engulfed the serpent
lay for a few moments with his dislocated jaws still dropping with t