GIGANTIC OPHIDIA. 325 



Their back is variegated with large spots, whose form, colour, and 

 disposition differ according to their species. The tail is short, and 

 not prehensile. Their favourite haunt is the low marshy ground, 

 rank with moist herbage, where they prey upon birds and small 

 animals, swallowing them whole swallowing them even alive after 

 having seized them in the invincible folds of their long sinuous 

 bodies, and always commencing with their hinder parts. So greedy 

 a repast must necessarily be followed by a slow and difficult digestion, 

 and cannot be renewed at any very brief interval. They eat in effect 

 but once a month, or once in two months. During the lethargic and 

 semi-somnolent condition which invariably follows their debauch, they 

 fall easy victims to the attacks of their enemies. The principal 

 African species of this genus are, the Python of Seba, of Central 

 Africa, and the Royal Python of Senegambia. 



The species peculiar to Asiatic climes is the Python Molure, a 

 native of the Indian Peninsula, and of the islands of Java and 

 Sumatra. The Python of the Sunda Islands, called by the natives 

 Ular-Saiva, attains the length of fully thirty feet. It has a large 

 flat head, of a bluish-gray colour, a thick yellowish muzzle, and 

 cylindrical neck. Its body is marked with deep-blue spots, with a 

 yellow or tawny border ; its yellow tail with blue rings. Its ordi- 

 nary habitat is the rivers ; it feeds on rats and birds, but also pur- 

 sues, when ashore, the largest animals. 



We are indebted to Dr. Livingstone for much curious information 

 respecting the serpents of South Africa, and especially in reference to 

 the Striking Echidna, a singularly formidable viper, which the 

 negroes designate Picakolou. He tells us that he killed one day a 

 reptile of this species, which was of a deep brown colour, verging on 

 black, and measured seven feet and a half in length.* These reptiles 

 possess so abundant and deadly a venom, that when one of them is 

 attacked by a band of dogs, the first dog bitten dies immediately ; 

 the second, five minutes afterwards ; the third, at the end of an hour ; 

 and the fourth, after a more or less lengthened agony. A great 

 * Dr. Livingstone, " Missionary Travels and Researches." 



