EGG-EATING SNAKE

any of the five species of the genus Dasypeltis of sub-Saharan Africa and Elachistodon westermanni of northeastern India. These snakes comprise the subfamily Dasypeltinae, family Colubridae. They eat only eggs. The mouth is enormously distensible and the teeth greatly reduced, to accommodate a bird's egg as large as a chicken's. Ventral spines on the neck vertebrae extend into the esophagus and serve to rip open the eggshell. Contents of the egg are pressed into the stomach and the bits of shell are regurgitated. Egg-eating snakes are primarily arboreal, and they are oviparous (egg laying), laying each egg in a separate place. All are slender and about 76 centimetres (30 inches) long.