-#5 Fauna : Reptiles, Amphibians, and Fish 



chief home ot the boas is South America ; there is also, I 

 believe, a torm ot boa in the Ma'ay Archipelago, so that it 

 is not absolutely necessary to account for the broken distribution 

 of the BoirLt' by the hocene bridge connecting West Africa 

 with Brazil, No doubt this former equatorial land belt between 

 South America and Africa is the real explanation of the boas 

 found in Madagascar and Eastern Asia, the intervening types 

 in West and Central Africa having died out. Or the reverse 

 is possible — that the boas may be specialised pythons, which 

 originated in Africa and spread thence to Madagascar and Eastern 

 Asia on the one hand, and South America on the other. 



The Python (^Python seb^t) attains to enormous size in this 

 country. Specimens sent from Liberia to European museums 

 have measured twenty feet ; it is recorded in the annals of the 

 Liberian colony that the founder of the republic, Ashmun, 

 killed a python near Monrovia which measured thirty feet. 

 Stories of other pythons of this length are told and repeated 

 from time to time. As elsewhere in Africa, although the 

 python does a great deal of damage amongst domestic beasts 

 and birds, it is scarcely ever known to attack man, and the 

 natives of the country make little fuss about capturing these 

 huge snakes, the flesh of which is eaten by some tribes. 



Only two chameleons are as yet recorded from Liberia, 

 These are the common species of West African chameleon, 

 Chamceleo senegalensis^ and the smaller Chaniceleo gracilis. The 

 chameleon attracts considerable notice from the natives, and 

 figures constantly in their mythology or beast stories. It is 

 supposed to have an exceedingly good opinion of itself, which 

 is not surprising to any one who observes its puffings and 

 swellings and pomposity of demeanour. In such a densely 

 wooded country as Liberia it is strange that the chameleons 

 should not be better represented by such forms, for example, 



81;; 



