egg-eater, noun

Origin:
South African Dutch, DutchShow more Translation of South African Dutch eiervreter, Dutch eier egg + vreter eater.
Any of several species of non-poisonous egg-eating snakes of the genus Dasypeltis, especially D. scabra scabra; eiervreter.
1821 C.I. Latrobe Jrnl of Visit 497Our good natured Hottentots, perceiving that I had begun to collect serpents, brought me several kinds, among which were the nacht-schlange (night serpent); earth-serpent, eyerfreter (egg-eater), schaapsteker (sheep stinger).
1887 Encycl. Brit. XXII. 194A..genus of snakes Dasypeltis...In Cape Colony these snakes are well known under the name of ‘eyer-vreter’, i.e. ‘egg-eaters’.
1911 E. London Dispatch 1 Sept. 7 (Pettman)The Egg eater lives almost entirely on eggs, which it eats in a curious fashion.
1913 C. Pettman Africanderisms 161Egg-eater, A snake of the Dasypeltidae family..furnished with a saw-like row of vertebral teeth in the gullet, by which the shells of eggs, which are almost its sole food, are pierced; the contents swallowed, the shell is ejected.
1950 W. Rose Reptiles & Amphibians 260The egg-eater does not hiss in the usual snake manner.
1967 J.A. Pringle in E. Rosenthal Encycl. of Sn Afr. 507Some [snakes] are fastidious about their food: the Night Adder eats only frogs, the Egg-eater only eggs.
1975 J. McClure Snake (1981) 103Snakes do not chew their food, but swallow it whole. The nearest thing to mastication is found in the egg-eater, known hereabouts as Daspeltis scaber.
1992 Afr. Wildlife Vol.46 No.2, 221The common egg-eater Dasypeltis scabra is a fairly common non-poisonous snake with an exclusive diet of eggs.
Any of several species of non-poisonous egg-eating snakes of the genus Dasypeltis, especially D. scabra scabra; eiervreter.
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Eendrag maak mag, phrasephr.Egoli, nounn.
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