SYSTEMATIC ACCOUNT OF THE SPECIES. 187 



by a series of small scales; a series of five or six small sliields behind and below 

 the eye; the eye thus wholly separated from the supralabials; thirteen or 

 fourteen upper labials with a faint trace of pits. Scales in fifty-nine (may be 

 51-65) rows, ventrals 280 (276-300), anal entire; subcaudals sixty-four (50-85). 

 Colour (in Uving specimen) : — Pale hazel-brown with a beautiful iridescent 

 play of colour; on the middorsal region a series of dark rhombs, on the sides 

 series of ocelh of dark brown with yellow centres. There are various other 

 spots and marks of dark colom* between these conspicuous markings. Belly 

 yellomsh. 



Dimensions: — Total length (adult ^de Boulenger) 2170 mm. 

 Vent to tip of tail 195 mm. 



The Cuban Boa is still by no means rare but with the increasing cultivation 

 of the country large individuals become more and more difficult to find. Gund- 

 lach records specimens from the Cienaga of seven yards and had one himself 

 of five yards, which is probably the one now stuffed in the Museo Gundlach. 

 A specimen of almost this size was received some years ago aUve at the New 

 York Zoological Park and was a most extraordinarily bulky reptile. A U\ing 

 Boa about nine feet long was caught in the Cienaga in 1915 and two others in 

 1913 of about the same size (Barbom*). Examples over ten feet long are cer- 

 tainly rare today, although the junior author has seen a skin over twelve feet 

 long with head and neck cut off. When one attempts the capture of a Maja 

 the snake is invariably found to be of the most irascible and snappish disposi- 

 tion. In habits the species is a typical Boa, sluggish and retiring, but it seems 

 to be much more terrestrial than the Central and South .American species. 

 Gundlach records the young, which are born aUve, to be twenty-one inches in 

 length. Before shedding the Maja loses the brilHancy of its colouring, as with 

 the other iridescent reptiles, but after shedding it is most beautiful and the play 

 of colours rivals an opal in effect. The Maja is much persecuted by the country 

 folk because of its destruction of chicken, turkeys, and young pigs. Palmer 

 and Riley notice that about the bat caves of Guanajay the Boas were said by 

 the coimtry folk to take their station at the mouth of the caves and by lunging 

 forward to catch bats from the stream which pours forth just after dusk. Rather 

 loath to beUeve this the senior author visited the caves of Guanajay in 1910 

 and found the bones of many bats about the opening of the caves but decided 

 that probably they had been killed by barn owls. That the legend which is 

 quite widespread was probably true, however, is proved by the following short 



