VIPER. 239 



the following observations shall be confined, has two hun- 

 dred and forty scuta on the belly, and sixty on the tail. 

 Its length often exceeds thirty feet, and its thickness is in 

 proportion. The colour is a dusky white, sprinkled with 

 spots of various colours. The scales are small, roundish, 

 and smooth ; and the Oriental Indians, Malays, Ceylonese, 

 &c. who adore this monstrous production of nature, use 

 the skin for clothes. They do not even reject the flesh, 

 which by some writers is said to be not unwholesome. 



The boa frequents caves and thick forests : where it con- 

 ceals itself, sometimes rolled round the body of a tree, till 

 its prey comes within its reach. When it seizes animals, 

 especially of the larger kind, it perfectly twists itself 

 round them, so as effectually to involve their body and 

 impede their motions ; while by the vast force of its cir- 

 cular muscles it breaks and bruises all their bones. After 

 having destroyed life, it licks the skin all over to facilitate 

 deglutition : this process reduces its victim to a shapeless 

 shining mass ; when, beginning at the lower extremity, it 

 gradually sucks in the body. The boa has been observed 

 for a long time with the horns of a stag sticking out of its 

 mouth ; these being too large and complicated for it to 

 h wallow, as well as too hard to digest. 



For some days after it has swallowed a stag or a tiger, 

 it is fixed to the spot, being disabled to move by repletion; 

 and then the natives easily kill it. When exasperated, it 

 makes a loud hissing noise. 



THE VIPER. 



The genus coluber, to which the viper belongs, contains, 

 at least, ninety-seven species; distinguished by the number 

 of the scuta, or hard crusts, upon the belly, and scutellae, 

 or small crusts, on the tail. Many of them are poisonous : 

 but others may be even placed in the bosom without 

 danger; and sometimes are so, from their beauty and in- 

 noxious habits. It has not been ascertained, with pre- 

 cision, that more than one venomous serpent, the viper, is 

 found in the British islands; to be able to distinguish 



