48 VERTEBRATA. REPTILIA. 



Python* 



The great Serpents of the Old World, to which 

 this name is applied, differ from the Boas by having 

 the plates beneath the tail arranged in pairs, or 

 divided in the middle. Their habits resemble those 

 of the last-named genus, to which indeed they are 

 nowise inferior in magnitude. The enormous Ser- 

 pent which was killed by Regulus near Carthage, 

 and the skin of which was sent to Rome, was doubt- 

 less a Python ; it is said to have measured a hundred 

 and twenty feet in length ; but its size has been pro- 

 bably much exaggerated. Some, however, are still 

 found in the great Asiatic Islands, which measure 

 fifty feet. 



Coluber^ the Snakes. 



This is the most numerous genus of all the Ser- 

 pents, and found in all countries. The head is 

 oval, or nearly so, covered with plates, usually nine 

 in number ; the gape is wide ; the plates under the 

 tail, as in the last genus, are double ; the scales of the 

 body generally ridged. The common Ringed Snake 

 (C. Natrix) of our own country, may illustrate the 

 genus. It is too well known to need any description 

 of its form or markings, but the following very in- 

 teresting account of its mode of taking its prey will 

 not be unacceptable, especially as it throws light 



* The Greek name of an enormous serpent, 

 t The Latin name for a snake. 



