Abstract
THE attack of a constrictor, at all events in confinement, is very often unsuccessful; but perhaps this may be because the reptile is not hungry. I have often seen the constrictors in the London Zoological Gardens strike several times at birds, pulling out feathers and even getting a firm hold and then releasing their prey, to renew the attack presently either with or without success. When the membrane over the eye is becoming opaque in consequence of the change of skin they frequently fail to hit the prey at all, but still persist until they secure it. I saw one of the large pythons take a rabbit in a way which must be unusual, I think. The rabbit-was hopping about near the snake's coils when the reptile suddenly made a loop in its body, and firmly inclosed the victim without touching it at all with the mouth, or even raising its head. The rabbit died there, but the snake paid no attention to it for a quarter of an hour and subsequently swallowed it very leisurely.
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NICOLS, A. Feeding a Python. Nature 19, 291 (1879). https://doi.org/10.1038/019291b0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/019291b0
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