300 Mr. J. J. Quelch on the 



In isolated country settlements where there are quiet water- 

 ways w^ith grassy or bushy banks, the water-boas become a 

 serious nuisance, and cause considerable loss of poultry ; and 

 if there happen to be no open spaces, except the dams along 

 the waterside, where the birds are constantly liable to be 

 seized, the keeping of poultry may be quite an impossibility. 



These snakes, and in fact the boas generally, thrive well in 

 confinement in the tropics, and if they be kept regularly sup- 

 plied with water and food they can be handled with impunity 

 at almost any time except during sloughing, when they are 

 apt to be irritable. The water should be sufficient to allow 

 them to immerse themselves entirely. Their growth is by 

 no means slow, a small specimen of less than 4 feet, fed on a 

 diet of rats — of which they are very fond — having reached a 

 length of nearly 10 feet, with proportionate thickness, in about 

 six years. 



Occasionally a specimen refuses to take food, and it is 

 surprising for how long a time they are able to exist without 

 feeding, and with but little apparent decrease in size, if any. 

 A specimen kept in a narrow-meshed wire cage in the 

 Museum some years back refused to eat for nineteen months, 

 though it would lie in the water for long intervals ; and it 

 seemed at the end of the time to be about as plump as it had 

 been before. Here there was no chance of food being obtained 

 surreptitiously, for the small meshes prevented even a mouse 

 Irom penetrating inside, and the cage was always under lock 

 and key. Cases of even longer intervals are mentioned as 

 liaving occurred, but it does not appear that the element of 

 chance feeding was eliminated. 



With but two exceptions, in an experience of ten years 

 with several dozens of boas of different s[)ecies, living food 

 (rats) had always to be given to them ; and if this seems a 

 cruel proceeding at first sight, one has only to be reminded 

 that it is about the quickest way of destroying the rats — 

 certainly quicker than drowning them oneself or allowing 

 one's dogs to kill them. The sentimental picture of these 

 creatures trembling with fear under the dreadful fascination 

 of the snakes is but a fi^n)ent of the imagination. After an 

 experience of many years with a very large number of Sjuth- 

 American snakes — poisonous, constricting, and harmless — in 

 relation to living animals — mammals, birds, and other creatures 

 — both in confinement and in open nature, the writer knows 

 of no single fact, nor has come in contact with any observer 

 who can produce any fact, supporting the so-called fascination 

 of animals by snakes. Tliat certain animals may become 

 absolutely paralyzed by fear and incapable of movement at 



