The Amphisbsena. 503 



South America, where it chiefly resides in the most re- 

 tired situations in woods and marshes. 



The bite of this snake is not venomous, nor is the 

 animal believed to bite at all, except to seize its prey. It 

 kills its prey by twining round it and crushing its bones. 



The Python and the Anaconda, which are at least as 

 large as the Boa Constrictor, are found chiefly in the 

 Indian Islands: they are very similar both in form and 

 colouring to the Boa, and have exactly the same habits. 



These monsters will attack and devour the largest ani- 

 mals, of which the following is an instance : A Boa had 

 for some time been waiting near the brink of a pool in 

 expectation of its prey, when a buffalo appeared. Having 

 darted upon the affrighted beast, it instantly began to 

 encircle him with its voluminous twistings, and at every 

 twist the bones of the buffalo were heard to crack as loud 

 as the report of a gun. It was in vain that the animal 

 struggled and bellowed ; its enormous enemy entwined 

 it so closely that at length all its bones were crushed to 

 pieces, like those of a malefactor on the wheel, and the 

 whole body was reduced to one uniform mass : the serpent 

 then untwined its folds in order to swallow its prey at 

 leisure. To prepare for this, and also to make it slip 

 down the throat more smoothly, it licked the whole body 

 over, covering it with a mucilaginous substance. It 

 then began to swallow it, at the end that afforded the 

 least resistance, and in the act of swallowing, the throat 

 suffered so great a dilation as to take in a substance that 

 was thrice its own ordinary thickness. 



THE AMPHISBSENA. (AmpJiislcena ftdiginosa.) 

 THIS name is now applied only to a genus of South 



