458 JOURNAL, BOMBAY NATURAL HIST. SOCIETY, Vol XXI. 



negotiated the head, expecting a hard struggle, but except for an 

 ineffectual snap at his face, the snake allowed its neck to be seized, 

 and its head to be thrust into a bag, into which the rest of its 

 body was unceremoniously huddled without remonstrance. 



Strength. — It seems very strange that a creature possessing 

 such a massive and muscular body and such gigantic strength that 

 it can overpower a leopard with ease, does not show a more aggres- 

 sive spirit. Few people who have not handled a python in life 

 can have any conception of the strength at its command. A 

 brother of mine in the Straits told me he had several times measured 

 large pythons in life, and that it takes as many coolies as one can 

 put in the length of the snake to hold it, and even then the}' were 

 unable to straighten it properly. Buckland* relates an incident 

 which happened off the Coast of Ceylon, where a python effected its 

 " footing" on a ship lying at anchor. When captured it encircled 

 a water butt on deck, and compressed this so violently that the 

 staves were contracted so as to allow the middle hoops to fall on 

 to the deck. 



Food. — The python, as the following remarks will testify, is 

 practically omnivorous. It feeds on mammals, birds and reptiles 

 indiscriminately, but seems to prefer mammals of relatively large 

 proportions. 



Its courage and power may be estimated by the fact that it has 

 been known to overcome and devour a full-grown leopard (Felis 

 pardus), sustaining but trivial injuries in the encounter. Thus 

 Major Begbie in this Journalf related the circumstances leading 

 to the death of a python by coolies, which subsequent dissection 

 showed had eaten a leopard measiu'ing 4 feet 2 inches from nose 

 to rump. The snake was 18 feet long, and except for seven claw 

 cuts appeared to have escaped unhurt. 



Encounters with tigers also occur, but in the only instances 

 known to me, the snake had the worst of it. Whether it was the 

 aggressor in these contests it is impossible to know. Mr. Inverar- 

 ityj after killing a tiger found some 2 feet 3 inches of the tail 



* Curiosities of Nat- Hist., p. 182. 



t Vol- XVII, p. 1021. 



I The Groat Thirst Land, ]>• 147. 



