[57] Essai sur la physiognomie des serpents, par Herman Schlegel. Amsterdam, 1837.
[58] Curiosities of Natural History, by F. Buckland.
[59] Anatomy of the Vertebrates, p. 260.
[60] Since the above was in type, I have on several occasions observed vertical coils in constricting snakes. Twice a python constricted an animal in distinct vertical coils. I drew the attention of Keeper Tyrrell to this, and we were both convinced that no lateral coils whatever were used. On another occasion, while Mr. Elwes was studying the action of Elaphis quater-radiatus for the illustration, p. 205, its coils were entirely vertical, not lateral.
[61] A Naturalist in Jamaica, by P. H. Gosse.
[62] Pseudoxia, Book iii. chap. xx. p. 155.
[63] Since this was in type, I find that not even a porcupine is safe from a hungry snake. In vol. xliii. of the Philosophical Transactions (1744), p. 271, is a letter from a gentleman in India, who states that on an island near Bombay a dead snake was found with the quills of a porcupine ‘sticking out of its Belly.’ The snake had ‘sucked it in Head foremost, while the Quills were flatted down. Afterwards they rose and ran through the Snake’s Belly, and so killed it.’ The pressure of the jaws had ‘flatted’ the quills, but not killed the animal, which, when in its expansile tomb, had, though vainly, erected its natural armour.
[64] Owen’s Anatomy of the Vertebrates, p. 261.
[65] Genius of Christianity.
[66] Anatomy of the Vertebrates, vol. iii. p. 260 et seq.