H4 Emu and Ostrich Farming. 



indeed its neck or throat was no thicior than a man's little finger. 

 I could never induce the Boa to feed, thoug'h I tempted it with all 

 the delicacies I could thmk of, such as rats, fowls, pigeons, and 

 rabbits. These snakes are subject to a fungoid growth on their 

 gums, which prevents them from feeding, and possibly this one 

 had the disease, but. for obvious reasons, I never cared to examine 

 its mouth. The teeth are very slight, and when the reptile bites 

 the teeth are apt to break and cause a nasty festering wound. I 

 kept the snakes in a large box, the front, ends, and top being of 

 plate-glass, and inside were a pair of blankets. Though their 

 room was heated, I thought this refusal to feed was owing to the 

 want of sufficient warmth rather than diseased gums. All 

 tropical snakes should be kept in a temperature of ninety degrees, 

 and this I could not easily afford them. To give them as much 

 heat as I could I introduced hot- water tins below their box. With 

 this view I made another shallow box or frame, open at the top. 

 in which the tins were placed, and on this frame stood their box. 

 So as to allow the heat from the tins to ascend to the snakes I 

 bored holes in the bottom of their cage. To facilitate the work 

 of boring the holes I turned the box containing the snakes on its 

 side. So soon as I did so I was startled by hearing a sound like' 

 a railway engine letting off steam. This sound proceeded from 

 the Boa, who was in a " fearsome temper," and was rushing about 

 " hissing like mad." When he saw me looking at him he struck 

 at me with such force that one could have heard the sound of his 

 " snout" striking the glass at a considerable distance off. I never 

 was afraid of his breaking the glass, but was often afraid he 

 would break his own neck. This he failed to do, but ever after 

 was so fierce that he never failed to dash himself ag-ainst the 

 glass whenever I nij^self or visitors approached his cage. Before 

 this change of temper I had been in the habit of '• doing the 

 showman" before visitors by taking him out of his cage and 

 allowing him to twine round my neck and body, at the same time 

 having a tight hold of his neck and seeing that he got no purchase 

 by coiling his tail round any piece of furniture. When his temper 

 broke I never dared touch him again, and prevailed upon myself 

 to believe that his performance was much more entertaining than 

 mine, and infinitely more safe for myself. He cast his skin more 

 than once, and when he emerged from his old one, " beautiful for 

 ever," one would have imagined that he had paid a recent visit to 



