ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY BULLETIN 



Photog-aph by Elwin R. Sanborn 



ANTLERS OF THE AXIS DEER 



A series of antlers shed by an Axis deer burn in the Park. 



The staces of development progress from the bottom to the top 



four hundred years. Also that their rate of 

 growth is exceedingly slow. It has even been 

 alleged that these tortoises require a period of 

 fifty years to attain full size. The growth of 

 our veteran specimen does not indicate a growth 

 such as this. It arrived during October, 1904, 

 and then weighed one hundred and forty pounds. 

 Ten years later it had increased to a weight 

 of two hundred and ninety-five pounds and two 

 vears later had increased an additional twenty 

 pounds. 



The twelve years' history of our big Malayan 

 python shows interesting items relating to feed- 

 ing and shedding of the skin, but no apparent 

 increase in length. This snake was twenty feet 

 long upon the time of arrival and the species 

 attains maturity when twenty to twenty-five 

 feet in length. The normal duration of life of 

 a serpent of this size is unknown, but a speci- 

 men quite similar in its early history to ours, 

 lived for thirty years in the Zoological Gardens 

 at London. Its death was caused by a type of 

 disease that would not occur in natural environ- 

 ment. When hungry, our big python feeds at 

 intervals of two weeks, but its feeding periods 

 are irregular. It may feed in this way for three 

 or four months, then persistently fast for an 

 equal, or longer period. At one time it stub- 

 bornly refused food for twenty-two months, yet 

 during this lengthy time showed but slight indi- 

 cations of emaciation. There are fairly regular 

 indications of fasting each year, these periods 

 probably relating to seasonal times when food 

 is difficult to obtain in a native condition. 



Our observations on the duration of life of 

 the smaller serpents are illustrated by the fol- 

 lowing: Two Indian cobras have been on ex- 

 hibition for twelve years' time. They were ma- 

 ture when received and show no lack of activity 

 or vigor at the present time. A specimen of 

 the common striped or garter snake was under 

 the writer's observation for eleven years and a 

 Florida rattlesnake for thirteen years. The 

 latter was killed by an injury, and judging 

 from its growth of rattles — four to the year — 

 as compared with the rattles of captured speci- 

 mens, would have normally lived many years 

 longer. 



The Park's vetertan alligator has actually 

 been under observation for a period of twenty- 

 eight vears. This specimen was received from 

 Florida by Mr. Charles R. Knight, in 1891. It 

 was then about sixteen inches long. Three years 

 later Mr. Knight sent it to the writer, who kept 

 it in his labarotory in a small tank. The con- 

 ditions were not suitable for its development, 

 and though it fed well, for a period of five years 

 it did not seem to increase in size as much as 

 one inch. It was sixteen inches long when 

 placed in the Reptile House in 1899. 



For about a year it showed no increase in 

 size, despite its favorable quarters, — a large 

 tank of tepid water. At the expiration of its 

 first year in the Park it was attacked by a 

 voung crocodile and badly lacerated. Its abdo- 

 men was torn open nearly the entire length, 

 through which aperture the intestine protruded. 

 Another big tear on the side exposed the heart 

 and lungs. As this specimen had been in the 



