702 REPTILIA—ANACONDA...RINGED SNAKE. 
cher, dilates to admit the morsel; the stomach receives it in part; and the 
rest remains in the gullet, till putrefaction and the juices of the serpent’s 
pody unite to dissolve it. 
Inuapits Surmam. He is twenty feet in length, of a bright brown color, 
with a double row of deep brown round spots along the back, and ocellated 
spots on the sides. The name of anaconda has been popularly applied to all 
serpents of enormous size. : 
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THE BUACK,.O8, RINGED SA KES ae 
Is the largest of English serpents, sometimes exceeding four feet in length. 
The neck is slender, the middle of the body thick, the back and sides vovered 
with small scales; the belly with oblong, narrow, transverse plates; the 
zolor of the back and sides is of a dusky brown; the middle of the back 
marked with two rows of small black spots, running from the head to the 
tail; the plates on the belly are dusky; the scales on the sides are of a 
bluish white; the teeth are small and serrated, lying on each side of the 
1 Boa scytale, Lx. : 
2 Coluber natriz, Lin. The genus Coluber has transverse plates on the belly, divided 
yato two under the tail, or forming a double row; head flattened, with nine large lates; 
teeth almost equal; no poison fangs. 
