224 SNAKE TRIBE. 



5. BOA TRIBE. 



These are by far the largest of all the serpent race. 

 They are altogether destitute of poison, never attack but 

 from necessity, and conquer only by superior strength. 



Great or Gigantic Boa. How dreadful are sometimes 

 the size and strength of this powerful beast ! Its length 

 has been known to exceed thirty feet ; and its strength to 

 be such, as to enable it to crush even the bones of a living 

 buffalo, by coiling itself round its body. This done, it 

 afterwards gluts itself on its prey, first reducing it to a 

 uniform mass, by licking it over with its tongue. These 

 snakes, when lying in the woods, have sometimes been 

 mistaken for the fallen trunks of trees. For some days 

 after they have swallowed their prey they generally con- 

 tinue in the same place, almost incapable of motion, from 

 their thus overgorging themselves; and in this case they 

 may be destroyed without danger. They are in no respect 

 venemous. When exasperated, they make a loud hissing 

 noise. They are natives both of India and America; and, 

 in some parts of the latter country, are considered as ob- 

 jects of worship by the inhabitants. 



The ground-colour of the body is y ello wish -gray ; and 

 on the back there is a series of large, chain-like, reddish- 

 brown variegations, with other smaller and more irregular 

 marks and spots. There are on the abdomen two hun- 

 dred and forty plates, or broad scales, and twenty-seven 

 beneath the tail. 



6. SNAKE TRIBE. 



There are, in the whole, nearly two hundred known 

 species of Snakes, of which about one-fifth only are 



