220 REPTILES OF THE WORLD 



grows to a length of twenty-five feet. A close third is 

 the South American Anaconda or Water Boa, Eunectes 

 murinus, occasionally represented by specimens over 

 twenty feet long, and fourth, the African Python, P. 

 sebod, growing to a length of eighteen, sometimes twenty 

 feet, and very stout in proportion to its length. These 

 are the giants among snakes and the dimensions given 

 are considerably in excess of the average. Following 

 is the average length of what we may call large examples 

 of the four species: — 



Regal Python, Python reticulatus 22 feet. 



Indian Python, Python molurus 18 feet. 



Anaconda, Eunectes murinus 17 feet. 



African Python, Python sebce 16 feet. 



A thriving, twenty-two foot Regal Python weighs 

 about 225 pounds. 



There are many and ridiculous stories about the swal- 

 lowing feats of the big snakes. The tales relating to 

 giant pythons engulfing animals as large as an ox are 

 utterly fallacious, nor do the big snakes ever wantonly 

 attack large mammals. The limit of their swallowing 

 capacity would be a moderate-sized antelope — an animal 

 about the size of an American white-tailed deer — and 

 nothing but an unusually large specimen could engulf 

 such prey. A twenty-foot python has been observed by 

 the writer to swallow a forty-pound pig and the process 

 was by no means an easy one. This particular snake 

 was ordinarily contented with two or three chickens at 

 a meal, such being given her at bi-monthly periods. 

 Almost without exception the members of the Boidai 

 live upon warm-blooded prey. Some are especially par- 

 tial to mammals ; others prefer feathered creatures. * All 

 kill their prey by constriction — squeezing it to death. 



The Boida? is divided into two subfamilies, the Pytho- 



