SERPENTS. 357 



and, after wrapping sevoral eoils of its body about it, strangles. Finally, having 

 crushed the larger bones, the jiroee.ss of deglutition is begun, which may last for sev- 

 eral hours; the head invariably being the first to pass into the gullet, the body follow- 

 ing. As the teeth all point inwards, and the jaws are successively and alternately 

 jnished forward and drawn back, the jirey, if not too large, is thus of necessity drawn 

 into the mouth. The reptile may, however, iiiid that its food is not suitable, or it ma}^ 

 need to take breath, and though the ])rey has passed some way down the oesophagus, 

 it is not unfrequently disgorged, making its ajipe.-u-niice as a most frightfully contorted 

 mass, covered with mucus from the alimentary tract; its slimy appearance having un- 

 doubtedly given rise to the false notion that the animal covers its prey, previous to 

 deglutition, with saliva. For some time after the reptile has taken a large meal, it is, 

 either from fatigue or from the effects of so loading its stomach, extremely lazy and 

 inactive, being not infrequently quite indifferent to what may be going on about it. 

 The inactivity of menagerie sjiecimens, however, is due rather to the enfeeliling effect 

 of a cold climate, rather than torjior resulting from overfeeding, or gentleness from 

 kind treatment. It is in their native forests that these forms must be studied to be 

 admired. Not only are the caged animals inactive, but the purple bloom, so charac- 

 teristic of the healthy animal, is invariably defective or lost ; the rough treatment to 

 which they are subjected, as well as a disease of the jaw, — caries, — rendering them 

 indifferent and unhealthy. 



It is not an unusual occurrence for the female python, which exceeds the male in 

 size, to deposit her eggs while in confinement and watch over them with the most 

 zealous care. Observations have been made which prove that the eggs are actually 

 incubated. The mother, after arranging them in a convenient pile, coils her body, 

 the temperature of which is consideraljly above the normal, around and over them, 

 remaining in this position until the eggs, at the end of about three months, are hatched. 

 "We have here among the reptiles an undoubted instance of maternal solicitude. 



Python reticidatus has the following characteristic marking. The undei-Iying color 

 is light yellowish-brown or olive, and the head and neck is ornamented bv a dark 

 brown line passing from the tip of the snout backwards, on each side of which are 

 two bands passing from the eyes to the angles of the mouth. Along the back a series 

 of black rings bordered with white, spotted scales gives the animal a netted ap])ear- 

 ance, from which it has received its specific wmwc, reticulatits. The netted ]iython is 

 found quite abundantly in nearly all the islands of the Malay Archipelago, as well as 

 in Burmali and Siani, where it is called Ular Sawad. 



Mr. Wallace, in his description of these islands, gives an account of a python 

 which illustrates the bold and independent yet helpless nature of this, or a closely 

 allied, mammoth seri)ent. It seems that during the evening, while the naturalist was 

 interesting himself with his books and insects, a 2iython took up its abode in tlie 

 thatched roof directly over the bed, not making its presence known, however, until 

 the following afternoon, when it was fin.ally dis])Osed of by a native well accustomed 

 to its habits, though it evinced all the indignation of a regular tenant. 



Pi/thon molurus, the adjiger of the Hindus, inhabits the peninsula of India as far 

 north as the Himmalehs and also possibly the Malay peninsula and Java. Like other 

 members of the family, it prefers tlie low moist lam's in the neighborhood of water, 

 where it captures birds and small quadrupeds, such as fawns and rodents. It differs 

 from the pi'evious species in several i)articulars. P. molurus has the two anterior 

 ujijier labials, and four of the lower labials, deeply dented with pits, while P. reticio- 



