s hold on the
"tree"; but as the upper part of him was gradually drawn into those
unrelaxing jaws, he by degrees gave way, and by and by was gone.

Not far short of an hour was occupied in this meal, during which the
victim showed no signs of being poisoned, nor were his coils round the
stump relaxed in the slightest degree, till Ophio reached the tail.
The ring snake is not a constrictor, yet he thus tied himself round
the tree by the coils of his tail.

One more singular case of tenacity of life must be recorded. A
ring-snake had been caught in the usual way, and the usual struggle
ensued between captor and captive. Coluber, with its head tightly
gripped in the jaws of his enemy, had still all the rest of himself at
liberty and in full activity, and after wriggling a violent protest,
he coiled what was left of himself so closely round the neck of his
persecutor that the latter made little or no progress with his dinner
for a time. He seemed to be deliberating how to proceed next, and
asking, "What is the meaning of this?" then shook his head, lowered it
to the shingle, and tried to rub off the coils. The only result thus
achieved was that the extreme end of Coluber's tail was loosened for a
moment, but only to coil afresh around Ophio's jaws, which
nevertheless slowly and surely advanced.

For nearly an hour the progress was very slow; but when the ring-snake
was nearly all swallowed except a few inches of tail, these became so
tight a muzzle that Ophio in turn was the victim. Shaking his head and
vainly endeavoring to free his jaws of this muzzle, a minute or two
elapsed, during which he seemed to suffer some discomfort, when
suddenly his mouth opened widely, and out crawled Natrix, apparently
none the worse for this temporary entombment. He had turned round when
two or three feet from daylight, and come back to see the world once
more. But it so happened that Ophio closed his jaws in time over the
few inches of tail which still remained between them. Nor did he once
relax his grasp of this, but quickly and patiently began to work his
way up to the head and recommence his meal, and this time with better
success. An hour and a quarter I watched, nor was any evidence of
poison seen, so as to reduce the powers of the bitten snake; for
bitten it must have been in those prolonged and forcible grasps.

[Illustration]

In these conflicts one could but observe a dogged stupidity on the
part of the venomous snake, who,