302 Mr. J. J. Qaelch on the 



The operation of swallowing, which in all snakes is very 

 considerably prolonged, becomes slightly moditied in the con- 

 strictors owing to the use of the folds of the body in holding 

 the prey, so that they are enabled to push their jaws more 

 easily over it. As in these forms there is generally a greater 

 disproportion between their size and that of the objects 

 swallowed than in other kinds, this hand-like action of the 

 coils of the body becomes of importance. 



Their anterior teeth, too, are stronger and more recurved 

 than in other non- venomous snakes, and are directly of use in 

 securing a firm hold of their prey, and thus in allowing the 

 coils of the body to be thrown with certainty and lightning- 

 like rapidity around the object ere any act of defence can 

 take place. Animals with strong and sharp teeth, such as 

 the peccary and the capybara, would make but short work of 

 the slender neck of the snakes were they not rendered perfectly 

 helpless by the enwrapping coils at the very instant of 

 seizure. Thus secured, any movement or struggle on the 

 part of the prey is only met by a tighter clasping of the 

 coils of the snake, nor are they relaxed until all breathing has 

 ceased, the cessation of the respiratory and circulatory move- 

 ments being easily detected under the tight clasp. Even 

 after the death of the object the tightening of the coils about 

 it can, by artifice, be at once brought about by the slightest 

 disturbance of the body, even at the very time of uncoiling 

 prelimir.ary to swallowing. 



There is a natural dread of these great water-serpents 

 among all native people ; but attacks on man by them would 

 seem to be of very rare occurrence, and only one instance has 

 ever come directly to my knowledge. In this case a boy 

 washing rice in a calabash by the waterside of one of the 

 large creeks was seized by the hand by a medium-sized snake, 

 and it would perhaps have terminated fatally but that the 

 boy's father, who was chopping wood close by with a cutlass, 

 at once despatched the reptile. From the circumstances of 

 the case it is very likely that the attack was accidental. In 

 the characteristically dark-coloured water of the creek it is 

 hardly possible that the boy could have been seen by the 

 snake. The probability is that the sound made by the cala- 

 bash in the water was mistaken for that of some animal 

 drinking, and the attack made accordingly. This seems more 

 likely still from the fact that there was not the immediate 

 coiling around the boy so characteristic of the attack of these 

 creatures, and it is probable that if the boy had been able to 

 keep still and allow of the withdrawal of the long curved 

 teeth, the snake would have sunk again from sight. 



