176 OPHIDIA. — BOAD^. 



pents will be familiar to many of our readers, 

 most of those which are exhibited in zoological 

 collections belonging to this genus ; their lethar- 

 gic inanity, however, as they lie coiled up in the 

 midst of blankets upon tins of hot water, gives us 

 little idea of the fatal power and energy which 

 they exhibit in their native climates. Many nar- 

 ratives of great interest might be quoted, illustra- 

 tive of their strength, their ferocity, their vora- 

 city, and other particulars. We must content 

 ourselves with a few of these, commencing with 

 one of a painfully vivid character, recorded by 

 Mr. M'Leod, in the "Voyage of H.M.S. Al- 

 ceste." The specimen, which was a native of 

 Borneo, was sixteen feet long, and about eighteen 

 inches in circumference. " During his stay at 

 Ryswick," observes the narrator, "he is said to 

 have been usually entertained with a goat for 

 dinner, once in every three or four weeks, with 

 occasionally a duck or a fowl by way of a dessert. 

 He was brought on board shut up in a wooden 

 crib or cage, the bars of which were sufficiently 

 close to prevent his escape ; and it had a sliding 

 door, for the purpose of admitting the articles on 

 which he was to subsist; the dimensions of the 

 crib were about four feet high, and five feet 

 square, — a space sufi[iciently large for him to coil 

 himself round with ease. The live stock for his 

 use during the passage, consisting of six goats of 

 the ordinary size, were sent with him on board, 

 five being considered as a fair allowance for as 

 many months. At an early period of the voyage 

 we had an exhibition of his talent in the way of 

 eating, which was publicly performed on the 

 quarter-deck, upon which he was brought. The 



