AFRICAN REPTILES AND BIRDS 



by its shattered head, I tried to pull it out, but its weight 

 was too great, the wet grass making the skin so slippery 

 that it was impossible to get a good hold of it. . 



When the men saw that I had grasped the reptile, they 

 came to my aid. We then brought it out to a small place, 

 from which the porters had mowed the grass with their 

 knives. It was unfortunately too dark to photograph it, 

 and as we had a long day's march before us, I did not want 

 to stop and wait for the sun to rise; so we skinned the 

 snake as quickly as possible and resumed our march. This 

 python measured sixteen feet three inches before it was 

 skinned and had a girth of nineteen and one half inches. 

 Another python, which I later killed not far from Mom- 

 basa, on the way to the Shimba Hills, measured but eleven 

 feet two inches in length and only seventeen and three 

 quarter inches in circumference. This latter snake was 

 hanging down from the large limb of a wild fig tree, some 

 twenty feet from the ground, and right above a little native 

 path which our caravan was following, the big head slowly 

 swinging to and fro like a pendulum. I thought the snake 

 was perhaps in the very act of throwing itself down upon 

 some unsuspecting victim in the grass below. Suddenly 

 the reptile caught sight of the caravan and quickly pulled 

 its head back upon the limb, putting it beside a branch as 

 if it wanted to hide itself from us. I was at the time carry- 

 ing the .405 Winchester repeater, and gave it a bullet, 

 which cut the spine about two inches back of the skull, 

 causing its instant death; and, with a loud thud, it fell 

 to the ground, much to the surprise and joy of the porters. 

 The skin of this snake had the appearance of having been 

 recently oiled, and several pieces of old skin, which still 



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