PYTHOXS. 331 



FAMILY CALAMAEIDJE. 



This is a family of small Snakes with rather rigid, cylindrical, elongated bodies terminating in a 

 short tail, and they are called Dwarf Snakes. The head is but slightly distinct from the neck, and 

 the small nostrils are lateral, and some of the head-shields are united, so that in some species 

 there are two pairs of frontal plates, and in others but one. The body and tail scales may be 

 smooth or keeled, and are in from thirteen to seventeen longitudinal series. 



The White-bellied Dwarf Snake* may be taken as the type of the genus Calamaria. It has a 

 single pair of frontal plates and thirty rings of scales, those under the tail being double. This 

 little Snake is about eleven inches long. The head is brown, and the body, of the same colour, is 

 ornamented with four longitudinal marks on the side and beneath. There is much white colour 

 beneath. It is an East Indian form, and lives on small mammals and worms, and is, perhaps, the 

 most fragile of all Snakes, and it falls a victim to Bungari and other Snakes. 



In the family Oligontidte there is a peculiarity about the dentition, one of the genera having 

 no palatine teeth, f and another having the last tooth of the upper jaw longer than the others, and 

 sometimes having a groove in it.^ 



FAMILY PYTHONID^E. THE ROCK SNAKES. 



These reptiles are occasionally found of great size, and are the largest of the Snakes. They are 

 fortunately not common, and yet they have a very wide and somewhat remarkable geographical distribu- 

 tion. They are found in the hottest parts of Africa, Asia, the Eastern Archipelago, and Australia, 

 according to Giinther, and thus link together those distant lands in a former continental space. 

 For the Pythons, although liking water and swimming, could not, and do not, pass from land to land 

 by sea ; and, therefore, the ancestors of those in the separated districts wei-e once free to invade over the 

 ancient and now partly sunken intervening lands. Living to a great age, having few enemies, except 

 man, they reach the length of thirty feet, and have the circumference in their largest part of that of 

 the body of a man. But those having the length of from eighteen to twenty feet are rai-e, and the 

 commonest are found within that length, and their thickness is that of a man's thigh. Climbing as 

 well as swimming, and able to move rapidly over the ground, the Rock Snakes, constituting the 

 genus Python, attack animals such as small deer and others of the same size, and birds. They seize 

 their prey after the fashion of other non-venomous Snakes, with their teeth, and then coil their 

 body round it in a few or several folds, crushing and smothering it. They occasionally kill larger 

 animals than they can swallow; but when one is within their coils which can be got down, the 

 head of the victim is taken in first, and then the rest follows slowly ; and the passage, often 

 difficult enough in consequence of the size, hairs, horns, or feathers, is assisted by the production of a 

 lubricating saliva. It is a curious sight to see a couple of ducks seized one after the other and 

 bolted by a captive Python, and it is evident that after the meal the creature becomes very 

 disinclined to move. In a state of nature, if a large animal has been swallowed, the Python 

 becomes torpid and may be easily killed. They have the character of being fierce, and of 

 showing great determination when brought to bay. They grow slowly, and one which was brought 

 to London having a length of eleven feet, attained twenty-one in ten years ; but the growth is quicker 

 in the early periods of life, this eleven-foot specimen being about four years of age. The males are 

 smaller than the females. 



There ai*e two species of Python in India. One is common in the Archipelago, inhabiting 

 most of the islands, and feeding on quadrupeds and birds. It often takes up its abode in outhouses, 

 catching its prey at night, and is useful in destroying vermin, although it occasionally causes havoc 

 amongst poultry. Very fond of water, it usually reaches a length of sixteen feet, but some of thirty feet 

 have been seen. It is the Ular sawa of the Malays. The other one is the Adjigar of the Hindoos. || 

 This great Snake has been said to destroy a Buffalo, which it certainly could not swallow ; and there 

 is a well-known engraving representing a man seized by one of these monsters. 



There are t\vo Pythons from West Africa, and one of them [ is to be seen in the Zoological 

 Gardens of London ; and when in full vigour, after having cast its skin, is iridescent with rainbow 



* Calamaria, alliventer. f Genus Oligodon Java and Ceylon, India. 



J Genus Homalocranion North America and Venezuela. Python reticulatus. \\ Python molurus. U Python sebce. 



