2544 SCALED REPTILES 



there has been much exaggeration in this respect, it is now ascertained that the In- 

 dian python (Python molurus), represented in the figure on p. 2543, occasionally 

 attains a length of thirty feet, while the West- African python (P. seb&} is stated to 

 reach twenty -three feet. It is, however, but seldom that pythons of more than 

 from fifteen to twenty feet in length are met with, and these are sufficiently formi- 

 dable creatures, since they have a circumference as large as a man's thigh, and easily 

 kill such animals as small deer, full-grown sheep, and dogs of considerable size. 

 They are, however, unable, according to Dr. Giinther, to devour animals of larger 

 dimensions than a half-grown sheep. A python destroys its victim in much the 

 same manner as do many of the smaller snakes, gradually smothering it by throw- 

 ing over it coil after coil of its body. In swallowing, writes Dr. Giinther, pythons 

 "always commence with the head [as shown in the figure of the African species], 

 and as they live entirely on mammals and birds, the hair and feathers offer a con- 

 siderable impediment to the passage down the throat. The process of deglutition 

 is, therefore, slow, but it would be much slower except for the great quantity of 

 saliva discharged over the body of the victim. During the time of digestion, 

 especially when the prey has been a somewhat large animal, the snake becomes 

 very lazy; it moves itself slowly when disturbed, or defends itself with little vigor 

 when attacked. At any other time the rock snakes will fiercely defend themselves 

 when they perceive that no retreat is left to them. Although individuals kept in 

 captivity become tamer, the apparent tameness of specimens brought to Europe is 

 much more a state of torpidity caused by the climate than an actual alteration of 

 their naturally fierce temper. ' ' In their general habits snakes of this genus are 

 nocturnal, and they generally live on or among trees in the neighborhood of water, 

 frequently swimming in the water. The reticulated python (P. reticulatus} of 

 Burma and the Malayan Archipelago, which attains a length of some sixteen feet, 

 not unfrequently takes up its abode in buildings, whence it issues forth at night to 

 capture such prey as it can find. 



It had long been reported by travelers in India that pythons incubated their 

 eggs, and although such reports were received with incredulity, their truth was es- 

 tablished in 1841, when an African python in the Jardiu des Plantes, Paris, laid 

 fifteen eggs on the sixth of May, which she subsequently proceeded to incubate. 

 When first laid, the eggs, which were completely separate, were soft, oval, and 

 ashy gray, but they soon assumed a rounder form , and a clear white tint, at the 

 same time hardening. The parent collected them into a cone-shaped pile, around 

 which she rolled herself in such a manner as to conceal the whole number, with her 

 head forming the summit of the cone. For upward of six-and-fifty days this posi- 

 tion was' maintained without movement, except when persons attempted to touch 

 the eggs. On the second of July the shell of one of the eggs split, revealing a fully- 

 formed python within, and on the next day the little creature came forth into the 

 world. During the four succeeding days, eight more snakes made their appear- 

 ance, but the rest of the eggs were spoilt. In from ten days to a fortnight the 

 young pythons changed their skins, after which they caught and devoured some 

 live sparrows, seizing and smothering them in the manner in which full-grown in- 

 dividuals destroy prey of larger size. 



