•It 14 



VEUTEBRATA. 



THB PYTHONESS OP THE GARDEN OP PLANTS, COILING AROUND HER EGGS. 



serpent, having boLTini with the fore-legs, was longer in gorging his prey than usual, and in con- 

 sequence of the difficulty presented by the awkward position of the rabbit, the dilatation and 

 secretion of lubricating matter were excessive. The serpent first got the fore-legs into his 

 mouth ; he then coiled himself round the rabbit, and appeared to draw out the dead body 

 through his folds ; he then began to dilate his jaws, and holding the rabbit firmly in a coil as a 

 point of resistance, appeared to exercise at intervals the whole of his anterior muscles in pro- 

 truding his stretched jaws and lubricated mouth and throat, at first against, and soon after grad- 

 ually upon and over his prey. Tlie curious mechanism in the jaws of serpents which enables 

 them to swallow bodies so disproportioned to their apparent bulk, is too well known to need 

 description ; but it nuiy be as well to state that the symphysis of the under jaw was separated 

 in this case, and in others which I have had an opportunity of observing. "When the prey was 

 completely ingulfed, the serpent lay for a few moments with his dislocated jaws still dropping 

 with the mucus which had lubricated the parts, and at this time he looked quite sufficiently dis- 

 gusting. He then stretched out his neck, and at the same moment the muscles seemed to push 

 the prey further downward. After a few eftorts to replace the parts, the jaws appeared much 

 the same as they did previous to the monstrous repast." 



Of the actual size of the larger serpents we have various accounts. Livy, the ancient historian 

 of Rome, tells us of a serpent one hundred and twenty feet long, which was met with by the 

 Roman army under Regulus, on the banks of the river Bagrada, in Africa, near Utica, and which 

 devoured many of the soldiers. It was finally slain by military engines, which hurled heavy 

 stones upon it. Its carcass was so enormous, that when it decayed, it tainted the whole atmo- 

 sphere, and compelled the army to remove its encampment to a distance. The story is told 

 with so much particularity that we cannot reject it. Another account is furnished of a ser- 

 pent sixty-two feet in length which not many years since attacked a sailor in a boat on the coast 

 of the Bay of Bengal, and was killed by the crew. At the present time, it appears that ser- 

 pents of from twenty to thirty feet are not uncommon in the tropical portions of Asia, Africa, 

 and South America. 



Genus PYTHON : Python. — This includes the largest known serpents, which are found only in 

 India and the islands of the Indian Archipelago. They frequently ascend trees, and lie upon the 

 branches in a position which enables them readily to drop upon any unfortunate animals that 

 may pass their station; and both these and the boas are said often to cling by the tail to some 

 tree growing in the water, where they float upon the surface nearly at full length, lying in wait for 

 creatures that may come to the water to drink. They prey upon animals of such bulk as would 



