FIELD NATURALISTS' CLUB. 193 



span I ascertained to be 84 inches and deducting the | inches 

 for roughness in measurement that would make it about 12 feet, 

 which is a very respectable size indeed for a Boa constrictor 

 (macajuel) although popular belief is they reach something like 

 18 or 20 feet. I referred to my notes at home and this is what 

 I found : "April 9th 1894, went to see Mr. Cumberland's Boa 

 constrictor and measured it alive and found it after very care- 

 ful observation to be 9 feet 8 inches from the tip of the nose to 

 tip of tail ; head 4 inches, tail 1 \h inches We thenposioned the 

 snake and after it was dead and all movement had ceased hung 

 it up and measured it. The result was 10 feet 2. 1 , inches over 

 all. Tail 11 j and the head 4 inches. Mr. Cumberland skinned 

 and stuffed this snake and it is now in this museum and measures 

 12 feet 2 inches. This fact is worth noting as it shews that the 

 16 foot monster of the newspapers was in reality somewhat 

 under 10 feet in length. Sometime ago I was invited to 

 see an eleven foot snake which turned out to only measure 

 six feet. The following are the newest authentic data of 

 the size of various serpents, and is taken from a work just 

 published by the most eminent living authority on the ophidia, 

 Mr. Boulenger of the British Museum. Python amethystinus, 

 which is a large serpent found in the Moluccas and Northern 

 Queensland, attains a length of 1 1 feet. Bon constrictor (macajuel), 

 a species with a large geographical distribution ranging 

 from Panama to Buenos Ay res including Tobago and 

 Trinidad, is represented in the British Museum by a very fine 

 specimen 11 feet 9 \ inches long and they are credited with 

 attaining 12 feet. So far as my experience goes the average 

 length of an adult is 10 feet. Python sebce, a snake found on 

 the West Coast of Africa attains to 23 feet. Python molurus, an 

 Indian species, reaches 30 feet and a similar length is attained by 

 one of the handsomest of the serpent family, the reticulated 

 python of Burma and Indo-China. Probably the largest snake in 

 the world is what we call in Trinidad the Huillia or Huile, 

 Euncctps inn rin us, which is found from Panama to Brazil and 

 also in certain localities in Trinidad, of which there is on record 

 one specimen 22 feet in length, and which is credited, according to 

 Mr. Boulenger, with attaining, when living unmolested in its native 

 swamps far from the haunts of man, the enormous length of 33 

 feet. Dr. Mitchell says that in 1810 or 1812, his god-father, 

 General David Stuart, was on a walking tour with the French 

 General, des Sources, and they found and killed nearlrois a large 

 snake which was 32 feet long in its skin. This snake, adds 

 Dr. Mitchell (who is well known as an observer of the ophidia in 

 the field) could only have been a Huillia. Such a monster I 

 should think would be very difficult to take alive. Imagine 

 him lazily leaving the stagnant waters and mud of the lagoon 



