Naturalist.

Alexandra Herald and Central Otago Gazette, Issue 413, 14 April 1904, Page 7

Naturalist.

A QUEER DUEL, £3E? STOUT, able-bodied Florid* king fwj© snake swallowed a blue racer six aKK eet i fi length, in the shop of a b»d and animal dealer recently, after a fierce fight on the part of the latter reptile in self-defence, It appears that; some days before this accident the proprietor had purchased a large blue raser, placing it in one of the cages in company with a Florida king snake. As the king snake had jnst made a hearty meal, he then paid 'little attention to his new cage mate, although from the very beginning the racer kept an eye on his companion, avoiding him in every turn. i

i As time went on, however, the king snake digested his msal, and again feeling the pangs of hunger he decided, as there was no other food in sight, to gobble up the racer. In fact, Mr King Snake thought, no doubt, that the blue racer had been placed in his cage for food, and that he would be acting the part of an ingrate to his keeper, the proprietor, by not eating his new-found acquaintance. So, without more ado, he pounced upon the racer, and for fifteen minutes the liveliest fight that ever took place in the shop ensued. The raaer was game, and bit the king snake on the back of his thick neck more than once. They struggled and wrestled like two Japanese athletes, the king snake (which, like the boa and python, kills its prey by oonstriction) trying to wrap himself about the racer, and the latter trying hard to avoid his coils by dodging and biting. Finally, however, after a deal of bother, the king snake succeeded; and then the tug-of-war began in earnest. Although more of a biter than a crusher and strangler, the blue racer is not destitute of the power of constriction, and for a time the two tried to Bee which had the best muscle. The slim blue racer was not much of a match for the density and avoirdupois of his adversary, and finally becoming exhausted, he lay oalm, allowing the king snake to swallow his head without offering any resistance. But this was not for long. The king snake after bolting the blue racer's head, was beginning slowly, inch by inch, to swallow the remaining five feet ten inches of its body, when the blue racer made one last and mighty effort to break away from his enemy. The thumping and noise in the cage became so loud at that stage that it attracted the proprietor, who, the moment he saw what was wrong, summoned an assistant and set about trying to save the big racer. The two writhing, twisting Bnakes were removed from the cage, and the proprietor and his assistant were astonished at the muscular strength of the two snakes, for it required all their strength to disengage them from about each other's bodies. Finally, when this was accomplished, the proprietor took hold of the king snake, and his assistant the blue racer, trying hard to pull the latter's head out of the mouth of the former. They soon discovered that this could not be accomplished without pulling both snakes' heads off, for the king snake had swallowed enough of the racer to render it next to impossible to draw the racer out again. Besides this, the holding-on qualities of the king snake were as surprising as his constricting abilities, so that the proprietor, rather than kill both reptiles, decided to let the king snake finish his meal, which he did in short order, stowing away the racer as an Italian would a stick of spaghetti. He ' swelled visibly' under the operation, and when he finished his meal his stomach looked tight enough to burst. The funny part of it all was that the racer was about one and a half feet longer than the king snake, but the latter managed, nevertheless, to dispose of his aversary without leaving any part of his tail sticking out. While not as long, the king snake was more bulky than the racer, which he evidently doubled up and over several times' during the swallowing process.