Mr. Broderip on the Boa Constrictor. 215 



Species 2. Sc. l^eve. 

 Sc. valvis omaibus glaberrimis, laevibus : superioribus oblique stri- 

 olatis; postica longitudinaliter striolata; inferioribus striolis 

 angustissirais sculptis. 

 Scalpellum la;ve. Risso MS. 



Hab. in Mari Mediterraneo prope Nice, scopulis adhaerens. 

 Description. — Valves all very even and smooth ; upper ones ob- 

 liquely, posterior one longitudinally, striolated : lower valves 

 marked with very fine narrow striae. 



Art. XXIV. Some Account of the Mode in which the 

 Boa Constrictor takes its Prey, and of the adaptation of 

 its organization to its Habits. By W. J. Broderip, 

 Es^. F.L.S., S^c. 



Few persons are unacquainted with Mr. M'Leod'sbook;* and 

 none, who have read that very interesting narrative, will forget 

 the admirable though painful description of the mode, in which 

 the serpent, taken on board the Ccesar at Batavia, dealt with his 

 prey. Two points in that description, however, always struck me 

 forcibly; the one as being contrary to the probable structure of 

 the animal, the other as being contrary to my own observations. 

 It will be necessary for me to premise that I have not a single 

 doubt of the correctness of Mr. M'Leod's statement as far as it 

 goes ; and, having said thus much, I proceed to notice the two 

 points on which it is my intention to offer a few observations. 



Mr. M'Leod says, (p. 260.) with much appearance of reason, 

 " with all this he (the serpent) must be so formed as to be able 

 to suspend, for a time, his respiration, for it is impossible to con- 

 ceive that the process of breathing could be carried on while the 

 mouth and throat were so completely stuffed and expanded by the 

 body of the goat, and the lungs themselves (admitting the trachea 



* " Narrative of a Voyage in his Majesty's late ship Alceste, by Johi) 

 M'Leod, Surgeon of the Alceste." — Mtirray. — 1817. • 



