Page:Natural History, Reptiles.djvu/189

Rh breath, when his jaws and throat were stuffed and stretched to excess. In the case above mentioned, where the prey was taken very awkwardly, and the dilatation was consequently much greater than usual, I saw this wonderful adaptation of means to the exigencies of the animal much more clearly than I had ever seen it before.”

It is reported that even large animals, such as stags, tigers, and buffaloes occasionally become the prey of these huge reptiles. In the German Ephemerides, we have an account of a combat between an enormous Serpent and a Buffalo, by a person who assures us that he was himself a spectator. The Serpent had for some time been waiting near the brink of a pool, in expectation of its prey, when a Buffalo was the first that offered. Having darted upon the affrighted animal, it instantly began to wrap it round with its voluminous twistings; and at every twist the bones of the Buffalo were heard to crack. It was in vain that the poor animal struggled and bellowed; its enormous enemy entwined it too closely to get free; till at length, all its bones being mashed to pieces, like those of a malefactor on the wheel, and the whole body reduced to one uniform mass, the Serpent untwined its folds to swallow its prey at leisure. To prepare for this, and in order to make the body slip down the throat more glibly, it was seen to lick the whole body over, and thus cover it with its mucus. It then began to swallow it at that end that offered least resistance, while its length of body was dilated to receive its prey, and thus took in at once a morsel three times its own thickness.

Nor are these gigantic serpents formidable only