1912] Ditmars: Feeding Habits of Serpents 211 



In their combats with the more sturdy prey, the big constricting 

 snakes are often badly wounded. Old specimens show numerous 

 scars which often point to once existing wounds that barely escaped 

 vital parts. As evidence of these conditions the writer again quotes 

 a communication from Mr. Mole: 



"As you are interested in big anacondas, you may like to know 

 that I have an immense beast now. Although she is not enormous in 

 girth, she is very bony and gaunt, and actually measures (I have taped 

 her), seventeen feet! Her skin hangs loosely upon her, and yet in 

 this condition she weighs 104 pounds. Thin as she is, this snake 

 is impressive. As it is not long from the time when these snakes 

 give birth to young, this may account for her emaciated condition. 



"She was captured by the men who captured Big Annie*, and 

 when I first saw this new specimen, I thought they had caught her 

 with a forked stick with a spike in the fork. They solemnly swore 

 that this was not so. Nevertheless, she had a punctured wound 

 about one inch behind the line of the eyes, and almost in the center of 

 the back of the head. I got her into a large tank, and from later 

 indications I was led to believe that she had fed upon an ant-eater. I 

 found an immense claw which I supposed belonged to Tamandua 

 tetradactyla. Further examination revealed pieces of hair which 

 made me positive that she had swallowed a large specimen of our 

 ant-eater. 



"A few days after this I saw the men who captured her, showed 

 them the claw, and they agreed with me, asserting what I had never 

 thought of — that the Matapel (dog killer), our local name for this ant- 

 eater, had made the wound in the anaconda's head, which I now 

 think quite likely. I annointed this wound with a healing balsam, 

 and the snake now seems tolerably well, although there is a likeli- 

 hood of the wound breaking out again. I am going to try to feed 

 this snake with rabbits, in the manner prescribed in your book on 

 reptiles. She has one or two superficial wounds about the body, 

 and I am sure the Matapel did not succumb before he had made a 

 terrific fight for life. They are dreadfully strong beasts, and their 

 claws are powerful, long and sharp. 



"The other day a dead boa constrictor was brought to me. I 

 think it was larger than Castro. I taped it and it measured eleven 

 feet and seven inches in length, and was thickly built. It seized a 



*A nineteen-foot Anaconda on exhibition in the Park. 



