SYSTEMATIC ACCOUNT OF THE SPECIES. 187 
by a series of small scales; a series of five or six small shields behind and below 
the eye; the eye thus wholly separated from the supralabials; thirteen or 
fourteen upper labials with a faint trace of pits. Scales in fifty-nine (may be 
51-65) rows, ventrals 280 (276-300), anal entire; subcaudals sixty-four (50-85). 
Colour (in living specimen) : — Pale hazel-brown with a beautiful iridescent 
play of colour; on the middorsal region a series of dark rhombs, on the sides 
series of ocelli of dark brown with yellow centres. There are various other 
spots and marks of dark colour between these conspicuous markings. Belly 
yellowish. 
Dimensions: — Total length (adult fide Boulenger) 2170 mm. 
Vent to tip of tail 195 mm. 
The Cuban Boa is still by no means rare but with the increasing cultivation 
of the country large individuals become more and more difficult to find. Gund- 
lach records specimens from the Cienaga of seven yards and had one himself 
of five yards, which is probably the one now stuffed in the Museo Gundlach. 
A specimen of almost this size was received some years ago alive at the New 
York Zodlogical Park and was a most extraordinarily bulky reptile. A living 
Boa about nine feet long was caught in the Cienaga in 1915 and two others in 
1913 of about the same size (Barbour). Examples over ten feet long are cer- 
tainly rare today, although the junior author has seen a skin over twelve feet 
long with head and neck cut off. When one attempts the capture of a Maja 
the snake is invariably found to be of the most irascible and snappish disposi- 
tion. In habits the species is a typical Boa, sluggish and retiring, but it seems 
to be much more terrestrial than the Central and South American species. 
Gundlach records the young, which are born alive, to be twenty-one inches in 
length. Before shedding the Maja loses the brilliancy of its colouring, as with 
the other iridescent reptiles, but after shedding it is most beautiful and the play 
of colours rivals an opal in effect. The Maja is much persecuted by the country 
folk because of its destruction of chicken, turkeys, and young pigs. Palmer 
and Riley notice that about the bat caves of Guanajay the Boas were said by 
the country folk to take their station at the mouth of the caves and by lunging 
forward to catch bats from the stream which pours forth just after dusk. Rather 
loath to believe this the senior author visited the caves of Guanajay in 1910 
and found the bones of many bats about the opening of the caves but decided 
that probably they had been killed by barn owls. That the legend which is 
quite widespread was probably true, however, is proved by the following short 
