1 86 SNAKES. 



The upper surface of the tail has a longitudinal light stripe bordered on each side 

 by a dark one ; and the under-parts are spotted and dotted with dark brown. In 

 India, Ceylon, the south of China, the Malay Peninsula, and Java, the last-named 

 species is replaced by the Indian python (P. molurus), represented in the illustra- 

 tion on p. 181, in the act of strangling a chevrotain. While agreeing with the last 

 in having only two of the labial shields pitted, it differs in having from sixty-one 

 to seventy-five scales in a row, and likewise in that the rostral shield is broader 

 than long, instead of with these two diameters equal. In colour, this python is 

 greyish-brown or yellowish above, with a series of large elongated squared reddish 

 brown black-edged spots down the middle of the back, flanked by a series of 

 smaller ones. The head and nape of the neck have a spear-shaped brown mark ; 

 and a brown band runs on each side of the head through the eye, while there is a 

 vertical one of this colour beneath the latter. The under-parts are yellowish, with 

 the sides spotted with brown, Known in India by the name of adjiga, this python 

 ranges through Peninsular India, Rajputana, and Bengal, to the foot of the Himalaya, 

 and is not uncommon ; but in Ceylon, the Malay Peninsula, and Java, it is rare. 

 It does not commonly exceed about 12 feet in length. 



The three remaining species of the genus form the second main group, in 

 which there are less than fifty pairs of shields on the lower surface of the tail ; the 

 number of shields in a row at the thickest part of the body varying from fifty- 

 three to sixty-three, and neither of the species being of very large size. The 

 best known of the three is the royal python (P. regius), of Senegambia and Sierra 

 Leone, which is generally represented in the collection of the London Zoological 

 Gardens; the other two being the rare Anchieta's python (P. anchietce), of 

 Benguela, and the Sumatran python (P. curtus). 



The subfamily of the Pythonince is represented by six other 

 genera, which demand merely a brief reference ; the first three of 

 these agreeing with the typical genus in the presence of teeth in the premaxillary 

 bones, while in the remainder that portion of the upper jaw is toothless. From the 

 pythons the first three genera may be distinguished by the tail being but very 

 slightly, if at all prehensile, and by the rostral shield of the head being either 

 devoid of pits, or with only very shallow ones. The first genus (Loxocemus), as 

 represented by a single comparatively small Mexican species (L. bicolor), has 

 no pits in the labial shields, no loreal shield, and the nostril situated in a single 

 nasal shield. Nardoa boa, of New Island, alone represents the second genus, and 

 may be distinguished by the presence of pits in the lower labial shields, and by the 

 laterally placed nostril being situated between two nasal shields. On the other 

 hand, the third genus, Liasis, is represented by several species ranging from Flores 

 and Timor to Papua and the north of Australia, and may be distinguished from 

 the second by the nostril being placed more superiorly in a half-divided nasal 

 shield. Finally, three genera in which the anterior jawbones, or premaxillse, are 

 toothless are Chondropython, with one Papuan species ; Aspidites, represented by 

 two species from the north of Australia; and Calabaria, with a single West 

 African representative. The interest attaching to these snakes is the connection 

 which they form between the pythons and the boas. Thus while the two first 

 differ from the typical pythons and resemble the boas in the presence of teeth on 



