Snakes: Curiosities and Wonders of Serpent Life

by Catherine Cooper Hopley

CURIOSITIES AND WONDERS OF SERPENT LIFE.

CHAPTER I.

SEEING A SNAKE FEED.

IN any person who for the first time witnesses a snake with prey just captured, the predominant feeling must be one of surprise at the seemingly unmanageable size of the animal it has seized; and he probably exclaims to himself, or to his companion, as we did on the occasion described in the introduction, ‘What will he do with it?’ Let us again take our common ring snake, Coluber natrix, that ate a frog for our edification; only, in the present instance, instead of seeing a tame snake in a private residence at Chelsea, we will suppose ourselves to be watching one on the banks of a stream in fine summer weather. A slight movement in the grass causes us to turn our eyes towards the spot, and we are just in time to see the quick dash, and the next instant a recalcitrant frog held aloft in the jaws of a snake that with elevated head glides up the bank. Coluber’s head is no bigger than a filbert, and the frog is nearly full grown, its body inflated to twice its original size, and its legs, of impracticable length and angles, kicking remonstrantly.

‘How in the world is the snake going to manage it?’ again you exclaim, and your amazement is not exceptional. It is what has been witnessed and heard weekly in London when the public were admitted to the Reptilium on feeding days, and it is what the reader will recall in his own case when first informed that a snake was going to swallow that monstrous mouthful undivided.

In the present instance, the injury to froggie’s feelings thus far partakes more of moral than of physical pain, for the grasp of the snake is not violent, and he finds that the more he struggles the more he injures himself. Yet he kicks and struggles on, at thus being forcibly detained against his will. In the mouth of the snake he is as proportionately large as the shoulder of mutton in the jaws of the dog that has just stolen it from the butcher’s shop. How do the canines manage unwieldy food? The dog can tackle the joint of meat, big though it be, because he has limbs to aid him, and he was prepared for emergencies before he stole it. He knew of a certain deserted yard up a passage close by, and of some lumber stacked there; he watched his opportunity, and is off to his hiding-place; and once hidden behind the lumber, he settles down quietly with his ill-gotten dinner firmly held between his fore-paws, while, with eyes and ears on the alert, he gnaws away.

The snake, no doubt, knows of a hole in the bank, or in a hollow tree, in which he can hide if alarmed; but he cannot set his frog down for one instant, nor can he relax his jaws in the slightest degree, or his dinner hops away, and he has to pursue it, or wait for another frog, when the same thing may happen again. He has only his teeth to trust to, and these have all the work of paws and claws, and nails and talons, to accomplish, while yet, not for one instant, must they relinquish their hold.

‘Besides!—how much too big that frog is for Coluber’s small mouth!’ And we continue to gaze in wonderment, filled with amazement that brings us to the bookshelves, to endeavour to comprehend the phenomenon. Not, however, until we have seen the end of that frog on the banks of the stream, where the reader is supposed to be waiting.

First, let me explain that in the manner of feeding, snakes may be divided into three classes, viz. those that kill their prey by constriction or by smothering it in the coils of their body; those that kill by poison; and some smaller kinds, which, like the ring snake, eat it alive—the latter a quick process, which may also be said to be death by suffocation. Our little Coluber is in a spot where we can watch it easily; so we keep rigidly still, and soon perceive that though the snake just now had hold of froggie’s side, he now has the head in his mouth. How can this be? and how has he managed to shift it thus, almost imperceptibly, while seeming to hold it still? Now the head begins to disappear, and the snake’s jaws stretch in a most distorted fashion, as if dislocated; its head expands out of all original shape, while slowly, slowly, the frog is drawn in as if by suction. Now its legs are passive; they no longer kick right and left, but lie parallel, as by degrees they also vanish, and only the four feet remain in sight. These presently have been sucked in, and the skin of the snake is stretched like a knitted stocking over the lump which tells us just how far down Coluber’s neck the frog has reached. Gradually the lump gets farther and farther down, but is less evident as it reaches the larger part of the body. The snake remains still for a few moments till his jaws are comfortably in place again; then he yawns once or twice, and finally retires for his siesta, and we to the bookshelves.