_ PYTHONS. 51 
Mammalia ; while the Indian species (which has a vertical pupil) 
prey chiefly, if not wholly, on the smaller Scincoid Lizards, which 
they follow into their places of retreat. Lycodon aulicus is also a 
common Snake in India, and is quite harmless, though often igno- 
rantly supposed to be dangerous. 
The Amblycephalide, or Blunt Heads, comprise a few species 
of moderate or small size, akin to the Dépsadide, the narrow 
mouth of which necessitates their feeding on insects, and they 
live on trees and bushes, or under the roofs of huts. Of the 
Indo-Chinese and Malayan Amblycephalus boa, Dr. Giinther remarks 
that “the head of this most singular snake resembles much that 
of a mastiff, the lips being arched and tumid. It climbs with 
great facility, frequenting the roofs of the natives’ huts in pursuit 
of its insect food. It attains to a length of three feet, the tail being 
a third.” Ofasecond genus, areas, three species inhabit the same 
region. ; 
The Pythonide, or Pythons, and Boas, are celebrated for. the 
enormous magnitude to which some of the species attain. These 
are emphatically the great Constrictor Serpents, to all of which the 
name of Bva Constrictor is popularly applied, although this appel- 
lation refers properly to one only which is peculiar to South 
America. Various genera of them inhabit Africa, south-eastern 
Asia and its islands, Australia, tropical America, and the West 
Indies. } 
The Pythons are large serpents of Asia and Africa. They live 
in marshy places and near the margins of rivers. They are non- 
venomous, but possessed of immense muscular power, which enables 
some of the species to kill by constriction animals of much larger 
circumference than themselves. 
Aristotle tells us of immense Lybian serpents, so large that they 
pursued and upset some of the triremes of voyagers visiting that 
coast. Virgil’s ‘‘Laocoon,” so vividly represented in the well-known 
marble group, owes its origin, no doubt, to the descriptions current 
of constricting serpents. Quoting Livy, Valerius Maximus relates 
the alarm into which the Roman army, under Regulus, was thrown 
by an enormous serpent, having its lair on the banks of the 
Bagradus, near Utica. This serpent Pliny speaks of as being 120 
feet long. Without multiplying instances to which time has lent its 
fabulous aid, but coming to more modern times, Bontius speaks of 
serpents in the Asiatic islands as being so various that he despairs 
of even enumerating them all. ‘The great ones,” he says, ** some- 
times exceed thirty-six feet, and have such capacity of throat and 
