230 REPTILES OF THE WORLD 



straighten out the tangle about the term "Boa Con- 

 strictor." All the species of boas and pythons are con- 

 strictors, killing their prey by squeezing it to death. 

 The student now understands that in scientific classifi- 

 cation the boas and pythons come under the head of 

 separate subfamilies. This being the case, it can be 

 realized that the indiscriminate fashion of calling all big 

 snakes "Boa Constrictors" is quite wrong, and the title 

 is properly the technical name of the well-known 

 South American species. While the theoretical "Boa 

 Constrictor" is the giant among snakes, the actual Boa 

 constrictor* is not an especially big serpent. A large 

 adult is not over eleven feet long. The ground color 

 is ruddy brown, becoming a rich brick red on the tail; 

 on the back is a row of large, tan-colored saddles, grad- 

 ually becoming lighter toward the tail, where they break 

 into half rings of pale cream color and in vivid con- 

 trast to the red. 



Closely allied is the West Indian Boa, B. diviniloqua, 

 inhabiting Dominica, St. Lucia and Trinidad. The 

 maximum length is about eight feet. In form and pat- 

 tern there is a similarity to the common boa. The spe- 

 cies may be distinguished by the darker hues and the 

 considerably greater number of dorsal saddles which 

 are necessarily shorter and more crowded than with 

 B. constrictor. Specimens recently shed glow with an 

 iridescent bloom, rivaling even the great pythons, a 

 condition denoting a state of perfect health. B. impe- 

 rator and B. meocicana are nearly related, besides sim- 

 ilarly marked. The habitat of both embraces Mexico 

 and Central America. 



Epicrates, composed of six stout species, is technically 

 defined by the absence of the supraorbital bone. On 

 the forward portion of both upper and lower jaw bones 



