SPOTTED BOA. 343 



conflicted with it when living-, and even when 

 dead obliged it to depart. The proconsul, there- 

 fore, thought it no diminution to his dignity to 

 send the spoils of such an enemy to Rome, and 

 to confess at once the greatness of his victory 

 and his terror hy this public memorial : for he 

 caused the skin of the snake to be taken off and 

 sent to the city ; which is said to have measured 

 120 feet: it was suspended in a temple, and re- 

 mained till the time of the Numantine war." 



Of the two figures selected for the illustration 

 of this species, one represents the animal in its 

 most regular state of variegation, the other with 

 the less regular or confluent pattern. 



SPOTTED BOA. 



Boa Scytale. B. cinerea maculis dorsalibus magnis orbkulatis 



nigris, lateratibm annulatis disco albo. 

 Cinereous Boa, with large orbicular black dorsal spots, and 



annulated lateral ones, with white centres. 

 Boa Scytale. lin. Syst. Nat. p. 274. Eoddaert Nov. Act. Cess. 



7. p. 17. Scheuchtzer Phys. Sacr. t. 737. f. 1. 

 Abdominal scuta 250, subcaudal 70. 



THE spotted Boa is sometimes scarcely inferior 

 in size to the Constrictor, and is of similar man- 

 ners, destroying, like that animal, goats, sheep, 

 deer, &c. it is described as being generally of a 

 grey or glaucous colour, marked with large orbi- 

 cular black spots on the back, and with smaller 



