PYTHON NATALENSIS. 



whose circumference was equal to that of the body of a stout man : we have ourselves seen a 

 skin which measured twenty-five feet, though a portion of the tail part was deficient. It feeds 

 upon quadrupeds, and for some days after swallowing food, it remains in a torpid state, and 

 may then be easily destroyed. The South Africans, however, seldom avail themselves of these 

 opportunities of ridding themselves of a reptile they view with horror, as they believe that it 

 has a certain influence over their destinies ; and affirm, that no person has ever been known to 

 maltreat it without, sooner or later, paying for his audacity. 



Owing to the difficulty of discriminating between certain species of Python, we are not prepared 

 to maintain this reptile to be distinct from the Indian species {Python bivittatus, Schlegel). 

 The characters which have been assumed as indicative of specific differences, do not appear to 

 us to have been of sufficient value ; the modifications to which they are liable in different 

 specimens, of whose specific identity no doubt can exist, show some other characters must be 

 discovered before certainty can be attained. The Indian species is doubtless an inhabitant of 

 Africa, and there are several specimens of it, both from India and Western Africa, in the 

 museum at Fort Pitt, Chatham, which are precisely similar. Between these, however, and the 

 species we have just described, there are several well-marked differences. The scales of 

 Python Natalensis are proportionally smaller than in the individuals above mentioned ; their 

 form is also different. The labial fossa are more numerous in young specimens, from Western 

 Africa and India, than in those of a similar age from South Africa ; in the latter they are two 

 upon each side, in the others, four or five ; the plates on the head, also, are differently shaped 

 and differently disposed. The pattern of the markings, when viewed in detail, is also distinctly 

 different, though there is a sort of general resemblance. Persons who have opportunities of 

 examining species of Python would do well to ascertain if the labial fossa vary in number in 

 different individuals of the same species and of the same size, also whether their number 

 diminishes as age advances. 



