296 Mr. J. J. Quelch on the 



LI. — The Boa- Constrictors of British Guiana. 

 By J. J. Quelch, B.Sc.Lond., C.M.Z.S.* 



These reptiles possess a somewhat special interest for resi- 

 dents in tropical America, seeing that they are at once a pest 

 and a pest-destroyer in the general economy of nature. The 

 term boa-constrictor in common parlance is applied to any 

 snake that secures its prey by enwrapping and crushing it to 

 death, and it is more frequently used perhaps to denote the 

 great pythons of Asia and Africa than the constricting snakes 

 of tropical America, to one species of which — the great land- 

 boa — in a strict system of nomenclature the name rightly 

 belongs. The Boas are thus typically the constrictors of the 

 New World, though they are not confined to it. 



Locally the word Camoodie is synonymous with boa-con- 

 strictor, and the various species are denoted by such terms 

 as Water-Camoodie, Land-Camoodie, Tree-Camoodie, &c. 

 Generally, however, the water species is referred to particu- 

 larly as Camoodie, this being the commonest, or, at any rate, 

 that one which is found most frequently, close to the haunts 

 of man ; and as it is also the largest, it has come to figure in 

 the public mind as the typical boa-constrictor, in place of its 

 land congener, to which the name belongs. 



This group of snakes will readily be recognized here by two 

 very simple characters. The jaws are long and carry each a 

 series of more or less curved and elongated teeth, and the top 

 of the head is covered with small scales of much the same 

 size as those over the body, and not with the larger shields or 

 plates met with in the harmless snakes. 



Of all the species the water-boa, which is known techni- 

 cally as Eunectes murinusy will be most easily recognized. 

 Its markings and colour are nearly the same in all individuals 

 and at all ages. Above, it is of a glossy brownish black, with 

 a double row of large oval black marks arranged transversely ; 

 below, it is mottled or streaked with black and yellowish 

 white ; while along each side there is a series of yellow patches 

 surrounded by a black border. 



During life the tints are vivid enough, but when the snake 

 is preserved and the skin taken from the body and dried the 

 colours become dull. The skins, however, are in great request 

 for slippers, belts, pouches, and other similar useful or orna- 

 mental objects. 



* From ' Timehri : the Journal of the E-oyal Agricultural and Com- 

 mercial Society of British Guiana,' December 1897, pp. 294-313. 



