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Ophiophagy (Greek "snake eating") is a specialized form of feeding or alimentary behavior of animals which hunt and eat snakes. There are ophiophagous mammals (such as the skunks and the mongooses), birds (such as snake eagles, the secretarybird, and some hawks), lizards (such as the common collared lizard), and even other snakes, such as the Central and South American mussuranas and the North American common kingsnake. The genus of the venomous king cobra (''Ophiophagus hannah'') is named for this habit. ==Ophiophagy in myth and legend== :''The mythic associations of snakes are discussed at Serpent (symbolism).'' A snake-eating bird of prey appears in a legend of the Mexican people, who gave rise to the Aztec empire, and it is represented in the Mexican flag: The Mexicas, guided by their god Huitzilopochtli, sought a place where the bird landed on a prickly pear cactus, devouring a snake. They found the sign on an island in Lake Texcoco, where they erected the city of Tenochtitlan ("Place of the Prickly Pear Cactus" – present-day Mexico City) in 1325. (In the coat of arms of Mexico this bird is depicted as a golden eagle, though it is often said to be a northern caracara.〔()〕 It is also possible that the bird was a laughing falcon or snake hawk, a bird of prey which feeds almost exclusively on snakes.) The Mayans also had the legend of ophiophagy in their folklore and mythology. Guatemala may derive its name from the Nahuatl word ''coactlmoctl-lan'', meaning "land of the snake-eating bird." Christian folklore associates snakes with evil (see serpent) and considers anything that destroys them good. An example for this tradition is Rudyard Kipling's short story "Rikki-Tikki-Tavi" (in ''The Jungle Book''), in which Rikki-Tikki, a mongoose, defends a human family against a pair of evil cobras. In Hindu and Buddhist scriptures, Garuda, the mount of Vishnu, is the enemy to the Nāgas, a race of intelligent serpent- or dragon-like beings, whom he hunts. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「ophiophagy」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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