SERPENTS. 127 



Mr M'Leod, in the Voyage of H. M.S. Alceste, has 

 minutely described the feeding of a python from Borneo, 

 which was sixteen feet long, and observes that, at Whydah, 

 in Africa, he had seen serpents "more than double the 

 size " of this specimen ; but it does not seem that they 

 were measured. 



The Penang Gazette of a late date says " A monster 

 boa-constrictor [python] was killed one morning this 

 week by the overseer of convicts at Bayam Lepas, on the 

 road to Telo' Kumbar. His attention was attracted by 

 the squealing of a pig, and on going to the place he 

 found it in the coils of the snake. A few blows from the 

 changkolf of the convicts served to despatch the reptile, 

 and, on uncoiling him, he was found to be twenty-eight 

 feet in length, and thirty- two inches in girth. This is one 

 of the largest specimens we have heard of in Penang." * 



Dr Andrew Smith, in his Zoology of South Africa, 

 records having seen a specimen of Python Natalensis, 

 which was twenty-five feet long, though a portion of the 

 tail was wanting. This is the largest specimen I know 

 of, actually measured in the flesh by a perfectly reliable 

 authority ; and even here the amount to be added to the 

 twenty-five feet can only be conjectured. 



It may be interesting to compare these statements by 

 setting them in a tabular form, indicating each specimen 

 by some name that shall serve to identify it, and adding 

 a note of the degree of credit due to each. 



* Quoted in The Times, Nov. 1, 1859. 



