318 BLUEFIELDS. 



When a Boa is irritated by stones being thrown at 

 it, it will sometimes rear up its body perpendicularly, 

 until it appears to rest only on its tail ; and then 

 watching a stone, it will suddenly leap after it, dart- 

 ing to an incredible distance through the air, and drop 

 upon it. Sam assures me he has seen a leap of 

 this kind to a distance of full twenty yards, but it 

 was down a dechvity. The Black and the Grey 

 Colubers will do the same, and will sometimes attempt 

 even to leap on their human assailants in the same 

 manner. I have been assured of these facts by both 

 my servants, who aver that they have witnessed them, 

 and on whose truthfulness I can entirely rely. 



Dr. Palmer of Spanish-town has informed me that 

 in 1829 a Boa of enormous dimensions was killed on 

 land belonging to Sheldon, in St. David's, by Mr. 

 M'Laughlan, the overseer. The people, to insure 

 the death of so terrible an animal, had cut its body 

 into pieces with their machettes or hangers ; but 

 the fragments were collected, and having been placed 

 in contact, measured within a very few inches of 

 twenty feet, and were as thick as a man's leg. 



One about six feet in length which I kept alive for 

 a short time, was very inert, lying coiled in the 

 bottom of his box, and apparently as unwiUing to be 

 disturbed as those Pythons which we see wrapped up 

 in blankets in zoological menageries. It was very 

 offensive, the white creamy matter which it discharged 

 from the cloaca, and which was probably the urine, 

 being of a most overpowering fetor. For the same 

 reason the skinning of one of these Snakes is a very 

 unpleasant operation, as I have abundantly proved. 



