A DOMESTIC SQUABBLE.

Auckland Star, Volume III, Issue 625, 12 January 1872, Page 3

A DOMESTIC SQUABBLE.

Mn- Frank Buckland, describes in Land and Water, the shallowing by a' python of a boa-cons trie tor : —" A few days since a rabbit was, in due course of things, put into a cage occupied °by two or three boa-constrictors and" pythons at the Zoological Gardens, Shortly afterwards, Holland, the intelligent and obliging keeper of the snake-house, was made aware by the excitement of the visitors that something unusual was going on. Running round to the back of the cage, he saw in a minute what had happened— one of the largest snakes had swallowed down whole one of his companions. Holland was only just in time, as the smaller snake had almost disappeared down the throat of the larger snake, there being only three or four inches of his tail hanging out of one side of the mouth of this voracious snake-cannibal. Jumping immediately into the cage in a most plucky manner, Holland seized tho cannibal tightly by the throat. The brute at once opened his great wide mouth, and out popped the rabbit, dead, of course. Why tho rabbit should come out first I cannot understand, but it did. Holland then, seeing snake number two writhing and ticking about inside snake number one, seized hold of the protruding four inches of the tail of the latter, and hauled away on it, getting out a few more inches — just enough to get a grip with his hand, and prevent the poor snake disappearing altogether. Still holding the bigger snake by the neck, he then began a series of pulling, shaking, punching in the ribs, and squeezing, till at last he succeeded in making the big snake disgorge his friend from his capacious stomach. When once the smaller snake " got way" on him, he slipped out easy enough, only stern foremost, of course. He was not hurt a bit ; he simply laid on the floor of the den for awhile, with his mouth open, wondering, doubtless, where he had been and what had happened. I saw him Just now, coiled up on his bough, looking quite happy. The larger snake—the ' swallower'— was ari Indian python between 10ft. and lift, long, the ' swallowee ' was a South American boa about 6ft, long. Holland thinks that the smaller snake must have caught the rabbit first, and the larger one must have seized it simultaneously, or else a few moments afterwards, so that the big snake really could not help swallowing the smaller one, as the sharp teeth in both jaws are set backwards, and are as merciless in their grip and as tight in their hold as the machinery of a thrashing machine. Whatever once touches the points of these teeth, living or dead, must go down this faoilis descensus. The mouth of the larger snake being opened wide by Holland's grip, the smaller one was enabled to slip out, backwards, from his uncomfortable quarters without coming in contact with the teeth. Holland says that two of the bystanders did not seem the J-east to wonder at the above unusual events They merely said, Oh, it's all right, I suppose!' "