THE BOA-CONSTRICTORS. 313 
brought to the Museum under the name of the venomous 
crotaline snakes, even the native Caribs being deceived 
by their appearance. 
They are both terrestrial and arboreal, and are most 
frequently met with on the low stumps or the fallen 
trunks of trees, close to the riverside. In their move- 
ments they are the most rapid of all the boas, and they 
seem to be much less sluggish then their congeners, The 
’ commoner species has frequently been kept in the Museum 
cages, but without exception they have remained wild and 
untamed, if one may use the expression—in marked con- 
trast to the other boas which under ordinary conditions 
can be handled with impunity. 
