10 JOUUNAL, NATUBAL HIST. SOCIETY OF SLIM. Vol.1. 



to sa3^ No bones are broken as it is commonly believed, and the 

 animal dies of asphyxia. 



Pythons grow to a great size, like the rest of the Boa family. 

 Specimens are said to have been killed 30 feet ia length, but such 

 dimensions are naturally never reached in Bangkok. Flower mentions 

 one killed in 1897 that was 20 feet long. The \irgest I know of my- 

 self measured 16^ feet. Specimens of 10 to 12 feet are fairly common 

 and are often hawked in the streets where they realize a few ticals for 

 the sake of their gall-bladder and skin. The former is accounted a 

 a valuable remedy for colic as well as for various other complaints. 



A python that has newly cast it? skin is one of the most hand- 

 some of snakes. No description can give any idea of the beautiful 

 sheen and the play of metallic tines of blue and green which sparkle 

 from every part of the body, colours which, alas, it is impossible to 

 preserve after death. 



Color and •marMngs (in life). Above, light brown with a 

 dorsal series of large darker colored spots, circular, oval, or rhomboidal 

 in shape, sometimes confluent. Each one is edged with black and 

 outsiiie again with yellow, these two colors descending upon the 

 sides in a rL^gular series of V shaped marks each of which encloses a 

 white s];ot. Below, whitish or yellowish, dappled with brown at the 

 sides. A black streak along the middle of the head, and one on each 

 side, from the eye to the corner of the mouth. Pi/tJton reticulatus has 

 tlie rostral shield and the first four upper labials deeply pitted. This 

 will serve at once to distinguish it from the other two species of 

 }iython, P. molar us and P. curias which are found in this part of the 

 world and have only the fii'st tw^o labials jjitted. P. molurus, the com- 

 n\oii Indian python, has been recenth' found at Lopburi. P. curtus 

 has not yet been discovered but it probably exists in the Peninsula. 



Haldtat. Burn:ia and Indo-China to the Malay Peninsula and 

 Arcliipelago. 



Family Ilysiiiue. 



5. Ctjliiulroplms rafus. 



Siamese. <] flU ^U (ngu kon kliop). \evy common in Bang- 

 ui 

 kok. Found beneath logs of wood or in heaps of earth or dead leaves, 



or in holes in the ground. Frequently to be met with crossing the roads 



